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| our soldiers in thier own words 3[a just in case letter]
R+R 2007,
Hey baby. If you're reading this, then something has
happen to me and I am sorry. I promised you I would come back to you,
but I guess it was a promise I could not keep. You know I never believe
in writing "death letters." I knew if I left one for my folks it would
scare them. Then I met you. We were supposed to meet, darling. I needed
someone to make me smile, someone that was an old romantic like I was.
I was going through a very rough time in Iraq and I was startin to
doubt my mental state. Then one day after a patrol, I go to my facebook
and there you were…I can't stop crying while I writing this
letter, but I have to talk to you one last time, because maybe the last
time I heard your voice I did not know it would be the last time I
heard your voice….I Love You. Go be happy, go raise a family.
Teach your kids right from wrong, and have faith, darling. I think I
knew I loved you even before I met. I love you, Katy. * Kiss * Goodbye
Specialist Daniel E. Gomez, 21, an Army combat
medic who died in Adhamiya on July 18, 2007, when the Bradley fighting
vehicle he was in struck a roadside bomb
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| our soldiers in thier own words 2WARRIORS "The American Infantry Soldier" The average age of an American
Infantry soldier is 19 years. He is a short-haired, tight-muscled kid
who under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man,
half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer,
but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for
work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's; but he
has never collected unemployment either. He's a recent High School
graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of
sports activities, drives a ten year old jalopy, and has a steady
girlfriend that either broke up with him when he left or swears to be
waiting when he returns from half a world away. He listens to rock and
roll or hipp hop or jazz or swing and 155 mm Howitzers. He is ten or
fifteen lbs lighter now that when he was at home because he is working
or fighting from before dawn to well after dusk. He has trouble
spelling, thus letter writing is a pain for him, but he can field strip
a rifle in 30 seconds and reasseble it in less than that. He can recite
to you the nomenclature of a machine gun or of a grenade launcher and
use either one efficiently if he must. He digs foxholes and latrines
and can apply first aid like a professional. He can march until he is
told to stop or stop until he is told to march. He obeys orders
instantly without hesitation, but he is without spirit or individual
dignity. He is self-sufficient. He has two sets of fatigues: he washes
one and wears the other. He keeps his canteens full and his feet dry.
He sometimes forgets to brush his teeth, but never to clean his rifle.
He can cook his own meals, mend his own clothes, and fix his own hurts.
If you're thirsty he'll share his water with you; if you are hungry,
his food. He'll even split his ammunition with you in the midst of
battle when you run low. He has learned to use his hands like weapons
and his weapons like they were his hands. He can save your life - or
take it because that is his job. He will often do twice the work of a
civilian, draw half the pay, and still get ironic humor out of it all.
He has seen more suffering and death than he should have in his short
lifetime. He stood atop mountains of dead bodies and helped to create
them. He has wept in public and in private, for friends that have
fallen in combat unashamed. He feels every note of the National Anthem
vibrate thorugh his body while at rigid attention, while tempering the
burning desire to 'square away' those around him who haven't bothered
to stand, remove their hat, or even stop talking. It is an odd twist,
day in day out, far from home, he defends their right of freedom.
Beardless or not, he is not a boy. He is the American fighting man that
has kept this country free for over 200 years. He has asked nothing in
return, except our friendship and understanding. Remember him always,
for he has earned our respect and admiration with his blood.
Pfc. Ryan J. Hill, 20, who was riding in a Humvee
on Jan. 20, 2007, when an IED buried in the middle of the road
detonated under his seat, killing him instantly
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| our soldiers in thier own words 1May 26, 2007
"What the hell happened?" any intelligent American might ask themselves
throughout their day. While the ignorant, dragging themselves to thier
closed off cubicle, contemplate the simple things in life such as "fast
food tonight?" or "I wonder what motivated Brittany Spears to shave her
unsightly, mishaped domepiece?" To the simpleton, this news might
appear "devastating." A normal reply from this person consumed by pop
culture consisting of "well, my problems seem trivial to the stars
who's reputation as a has-been, no-talent is clearly at stake."
Please.....if only life were that simple. I assume not everyone thinks
this way, but from my little corner of the earth, Iraq, a spot in the
world a majority of Americans could'nt point out on the map, it
certainly appears so. This little piece of truly, heart-breaking news
captured headlines and apparently American imaginations as FOX news did
a two hour, truly enlightening piece of breaking news history. American
veiwers watched intently, and impatiently as the pretty colors flashed
and the media exposed the inner workings of Brittany's obviously, deep
character.
I was amazed, truly dumbfounded wondering how
we as Americans have sank so low. To all Americans I have but one
phrase that helps me throughout my day of constant dangers and ever
present death around the corner, "WHO THE FUCK CARES!" Wow America, we
have truly become a nation of self-absorbed retards. I wish the world
was in a state where everytime I stopped to scratch my balls it
captured national headlines, but I'm a realist and consiquently think
realistically. This world has serious problems and it's time for
America to start addressing them.
Now, I like to think I'm
a fairly intelligent individual.....is everyone else out there a
shallow moron who takes everything for granted? Really, give me some
glimmer of hope, some feedback on the common sense of America because
I'm slowly but surely losing faith in the "American dream." What does
this dream entail in my eyes? you might ask. Well, to tell the truth, I
could'nt even begin to ponder that question...not anymore. The dream
turned to a nightmare the minute idiosy took hold and put a death grip
around the neck of common sense and reality. It's almost to the point
where, from a real soldiers standpoint, I wonder on a constant basis
what the hell I am fighting for? I mean really, we lose an average of
four soldiers daily in some of the most grotesque, and grousome attacks
imaginable......something I've seen first-hand on more than one
occasion....and this is the best peice of news i get to chew on? Well
thank you FOX, CNN, and all the other major media players......I have
now lost at least 20 IQ points watching you ramble on about the petty
problems of millionares. You can also chalk up about 3,000 brain cells,
more than i lost in about five years of drug abuse, to watching your
disgusting display of world news.You don't however do
stories on how capitalism effects third world countries, making our
products from cheap, child labor, exploiting the rights of millions and
run by the monsters of humanity. You don't show the effects of world
trade on third world countries. You don't delve into how corporate
America makes "contributions" in national elections swaying policy and
regulations on world financial issues. You don't keep up on the men who
steal working people's pensions and social security at the top of the
corporate ladder. You don't cover how the inner city ghettos are made
up of mostly minorities who are stuck in a desperate situation
surrounded by drugs and murder, a very hard situation to get out of.
You don't do stories on how crack cocaine, a drug used mostly by
African-Americans, will get you more federal prison time as opposed to
the same amount of cocaine (gram for gram), a drug widely used by
Caucasions. You don't do stories on how fascism is on the rise in
Europe. You do a piss poor job of relaying any peice of any story from
iraq without a media "spin." Nor do I see stories about the 15,000
nuclear weapons, ICBM's (city killers) that the United States keeps as
a "deterent"......funny that is enough firepower to blow up every major
city and kill the world's population seven times over. And I have yet
to see a story about the Project for a New American Century, which
relies on the military and corporate takeover of the middle-east oil
reserves.
Congratulations, you keep the masses ignorant
and uninformed. You are truly a system that is a product of social
conditions. A sickness on society.....the symptoms being "ignorant
American", the diagnosis.................."terminal."
Sgt. Ryan M. Wood, 22, was killed in a Bradley fighting vehicle on June 21, 2007 when it hit an I.E.D.
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| hopeAnd so I talk about hope. I put "hope" on my signs. I gave a speech in Boston at the convention about hope. I wrote a book called "The Audacity of Hope."
But now some are suggesting that I must be naive, that if you talk about hope it means that you're fuzzy-headed, you're not realistic, you're peddling in false hopes, you need a reality check.
The implication is, is that if you talk about hope that you must be passive and you're just waiting for good things to happen, and you don't realize how mean and tough the world can be.
But understand that's not what hope is. Hope is not blind optimism. Hope is not ignoring or being ignorant of the challenges that stand between you and your dreams.
I know this: nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened except somebody somewhere was willing to hope.
That is how this country was founded, a group of patriots declaring independence against the mighty British empire. Nobody gave them a chance, but they had hope.
That's how slaves and abolitionists resisted an evil system and how a new president chartered a course to ensure that we would not remain half-slave and half-free.
That is how the greatest generation, my grandfather fighting in Patton's army, my grandmother staying at home with a baby, working on a bomber assembly line, how that greatest generation defeated Hitler and fascism and lifted itself up out of a great depression.
That's how pioneers settled the west. That's how immigrants traveled at great risk from distant shores. That is how women won the right to vote. That's how workers won the right to organize.
That's how young people in the '60s traveled south, and some marched, and some sat-in, and some were beaten, and some went to jail, and some died for freedom's cause. That's what hope is.
That's what hope is. That's what hope is, imagining, and then fighting
for, and then working for, struggling for what did not seem possible
before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/politics/19text-obama.html?pagewanted=all
Something that is exciting for me is the fact that Obama has drawn in many more voters than have participated in our recent history. A sense of civic pride. The parable of the stone soup applied to a nation.
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