8/8/2005
Losing People & Life
American Soldier says,
I am not anyone special. I am not a super hero. I am not a superstar or anyone you would ask for an autograph. I am just me. A typical guy who has a family, house, two vehicles, job. I so happen to have had the luxury of serving this country.
Now don’t let the intro fool you. I’m not looking for the knee jerk response of being special. I know people hold others above others but really when it all comes down to it, I am just another person in this time and space. When you lose friends or people you just knew, it puts a really good spin on the perspective of life.
I was reading some bio’s of some Soldiers and a Journalist who have been killed in the past couple of weeks and it’s been bothering me. It’s like I am experiencing the war right here in the comforts of my environment. No matter how far I get away, it still follows.
Now before I digress too far, I want to get back to these guys who have died recently. They had families, houses, vehicles and a job. Just like me! They were just normal guys who decided that it was the right thing to do in serving their country or writing about it. They left their homes and all the above and went to the war. They knew the risks and still carried on. Some avoiding death, only to die a short time later. Some just never saw it coming. In an instance their life snuffed out from them. Now their loved ones back home can only hold onto the memories through pictures and scrap books. Daddy is forever gone. The husband who once lay next to that now widow is gone. The man who fixed your car or made your food is now gone. You may not even notice a difference as you carry on with life. No one really expects you to. I could safely say that those who have died wouldn’t want you to stop living life just because they are gone.
The point is how insignificant life can be and you don’t even notice. People come and go in life. You have no control of when your time is up. You just have to live life at the fullest. So when you go home tonight, maybe hug the one you love for a second longer. Sit down with your kids and play with them. Life is a strange thing; it’s almost like a bad joke being played on you. You just hope you get the meaning at the end.
Enjoy your time while you can. I think the biggest thing you could do to honor those who have died for freedom, is to take advantage of it while you can. They can no longer enjoy it, just remember that when you think you may not have enough time next time.
Filed under: General, News from home
22 Responses to “Losing People & Life”
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I fully agree with ya and totally appreciate what you write here. Keep blogging Sir! Thanks alot. God Bless you.
Yes, absolutely. DITTO to everything Christine said! We DO appreciate you, and will always honor those who are fallen….
Thank you, as always, for this post.
AS,
So well said! Life is like a vapor the bible says and that is like on a cold day, you can see your breath as it comes out of your mouth and then it’s gone. An analogy of how short life here on earth is…..very short indeed.
I agree with you, we need to savor every moment of life but it gets so routine sometimes that we take it for granted until one day our loved ones have gone from us and then we see how precious every moment was with them.
I pray for all the people especially the families of those soldiers who have lost loved ones in this war! God Bless them all!!
Well said!!
You are right enjoy everyday as if it were your last because someday you will be right. Everyday I hug and kiss my daughter more than I did the last because as she grows up I want her to remember the love I had for her in case one day I do not make it home. My biggest nightmare is not being there when she takes her first steps or when she rides a bike for the first time, her first prom, or my first grandchild being born. If I could stay in the same house as her instead of an Old opersons home I will definely do it. I have never felt love for anything or anyone the way I feel for her, her mother knows I love her the most. I did not get back into uniform because of my wife and child. I love my country and I have given my country part of my life, now it is time for me to fufill the role god gave to me as a parent. They need to bring you fathers, husbands, uncles, brothers,aunts, sisters, wives, mothers home to the ones who love you and care for you, the ones who call you friend as my best friend now risks his life in a god forsaken hell hole we have dropped our loved ones into. I miss my friend, I miss fishing with him on sundays, I miss listening to his lastest love conquest, I miss his stupid laugh, or his love of fast cars. I miss his phone calls at all hours of the night. I miss my friend. God keep him safe so we can go fishing every sunday for the rest of our lives. The hard part about you guys being there is not knowing, not knowing if you guys are alright. Damn I miss my friend, God please bring him back because he is the only real friend I Got!
Great posting. Along with the thought goes unfinished business. Mend any fences, apologize now for those times you neglectd to do so. Sometimes ot doesn’t matter who was right or wrong. When they are gone you realize that; but, then it’s too late.
Very wise words.
Klaus not a nice thing to say to an American who is risking his life day and night so you can sit home turn on your DirectTV and watch your soft porn. American Soildier left his family alone so any support I can give him makes me feel better about my friend in that hell hole we call Iraq. To show emotions is not unmanly because anyone knows if you hold it in long enough you will blow up, and cleaning that up is a job in itself. I am proud of my friend he gave up college, girls, his four wheelin jeep, and his best friend me to go over there to save lives not to take them. He is an honorable man who believes in America more than I. I will not allow others to blaspheme what our countrymen are doing in the Hell Hole, I also enjoy sharing my thought emotions and feeling with people on this blog whether they agree or not so if you want to post immature comments about what we say here go right ahead its a free country as long as we fight to keep it free, three years ago you would get hung drawn and quartered in Irag for saying less about Saddem
It is a heavy burden a soldier carries. His is not to ask right or wrong; rather, he or she has signed on to obey the orders of the Commander in Chief. End of story. But back home it is the duty of every American to simultaneously worry and fret and support and admire and pray for everyone in uniform, but also challenge and hold accountable the civilian authority that puts our family and friend in such a brutal dangerous place. Even if a soldier must be tenacious and blindly obedient to the job at hand, he should also respect and be thankful that society as a whole demands the government to be accountable. There is a real chance we cannot change the thinking of a region which for 5000 years has been either dominated or in dispute. Should that realization occur, accept that as reality and come home, both proud you did a good job, be glad its over, and humble for the sacrifice of your comrades. R dee Tee
Thank you for this site, I was just cruising the Internet, trying to find some positive support for us over here. Thank you. Please heed what this wise person is saying and value the time and opportunities you have with your loved ones, I know I will when I see mine again.
Hello, I am not a soldier, In fact, I do not know anyone currently on duty in the war. But I came across this website, and thought your message was very moving and it’s message - universal. We all have lost someone somehow, but as always - life keeps moving, the world keeps turning and we continue on. As an American citizen, I thank you and thank those who were lost for risking and in some unfortunate cases losing your life for the freedom of the citizens of this country today, and for the freedom of generations to come. It is so sad to see people losing their lives everyday, I can’t even imagine what it must be like to go through something like that, or to live with the emotional and physical reprocussions from days and nights spent fighting for this country. Thank You all for our freedom, you are so brave and may God heal all your wounds, especially the wounds of your heart. God Bless! Stephanie, Minnesota
I want to thank you for your service to this country! Those that oppose the soldiers over in Iraq have no idea what they go through each and every day. They don’t know what it’s like to leave their family for long months at a time, to give up their lives and pick up a gun. They’ll never understand the agony a family at home feels, as each day goes by. They’ll never have their hearts skip a beat when the phone rings or the mail is delivered. They don’t have to live their lives one day at a time. Their hearts don’t break when they see/smell/hear something that reminds them of loved ones far away. The Army life is something that cannot be explained….only lived. My boyfriend just finished AIT in Fort Benning, Georgia and has been home for a week now…he’ll be leaving for his unit in Ft. Carson, Colorado next Thursday. As far as we know now, he’ll be deployed in 2 months and I’m scared but damn I can’t help but be proud of him! While he was gone, I missed him like I’ve never missed anything else. So for those of you that so ignorantly trash talk soldiers- remember this.
I didnt know sites like this were online. Thank you so much for what you said, who you are and what you do. My boyfriend just got back from his second tour in Iraq. I know you guys and girls have a hard time over there. But I feel as if his time over there has caused him to push me away. Is this common? Any adivce on what I can do? I only think about him everyday all the time and soon he will be leaving to go to Ft Carson. I support all our soldiers no matter where they are.
Thanks again for what you do!
Unfortunately you are correct. Unless we new the person who has died, the world keeps turning for us; and knowing the person is not just knowing “Joe” the guy with the blue hat who always fixes my cappuccino correctly.
I watch the news every evening, and I hear about the soldiers and marines we are loosing and for a moment I feel saddened, then it is on with life. We all do it. Yet then again, it will always bring tears to my eyes when the news does an “in depth” report on a soldier that has recently died. Then I can place a name with the number, a face with the widow or mother, see the sadness of a child whose mother or father will not be coming back to hold them.
I thank those who are fighting, and I thank those who have fought. May God Bless all of them.
I love your blog. My husband is currently in Iraq, so everything you write here touches home for me. God Bless America!!
As a former soldier - in another part of the world, in another time, under another flag - I understand very well what most American soldiers go through everyday. And I respect them, as people. The damn thing is that I also know that you are in the wrong war, in the wrong place, for the wrong reasons. You are not helping the Iraqis, you are not building democracy, you are not even helping yourselves. And, by now, most of you know this to be true. Arabs have a different culture, a different view on the world, different ways of doing things. They are not enslaved people waiting to be liberated. And if they were, they themselves would have to be their own liberators. Your intentions may have been good. The end result is a disaster. You are humiliating a proud people. You end up killing innocent men, women and children while trying to kill the bad guys. Not knowing who wants to harm you and who doesn’t, you end up killing both and, by doing so, you have turned the whole Iraqi nation against you. If you leave now, things will be pretty bad. If you don’t, things will be evem worse. I profoundly respect the personal sacrifice of each one of you. But the only decent thing to do is to leave Iraq as soon as possible, so that this unnecessary sacrifice will come to an end. Time to recognize you made a mistake and to correct it.
You gotta live like you were dyin’…. or so the song goes. Everytime I hear that song, it haunts me. Makes me want to be a better person and have the courage to do the things I really want to. Being from Cincinnati has been hard recently, with the funerals of those 5 Marines being held this week.
It’s one thing to thank the men and women who have died for our country- it’s yet another to HONOR their deaths. To “live like you were dyin” is an awesome way to pay tribute to their memories, and to remind us to go on and not get swallowed by our grief. Thanks, AS. Great message.
Albatroz- you’re an idiot. Get a clue, and since you “served under another flag” STAY THERE.
AFSister ~ here in Georgia, we recently buried one of our soldiers we lost here, from Duluth I believe. They showed part of the funeral on the news, and I just cried my eyes out ~ and totally lost it when they played Taps.
AF Sister,
Thank you for calling me an idiot. I sometimes think it would be good to exchange views with people like you, but only an idiot would think it possible. I wonder how many more casualties - American and Iraqi - will be necessary for you to understand what I was trying to convey to you…
Every time I hear of another soldier getting killed, it hurts me. When I think of all the wives, mothers and families it affects, it sickens me. I am a 28 yr old Army vet, but for some reason every death just rakes me over the coals. I live in Ohio, and our boys who were killed a few weeks ago alone is such a tremendous loss. I hate to turn off the news, but every night it is just hard emotionally. Each life is special, and may God keep all of them.
Albatroz and AF sister- Albatroz when AF sister told you that it’s because you never served under the United States flag…and you don’t know what it’s like to be an American civilian (who has no choice in the war) who has lost their soldier. I don’t know what you went through in your own country- but that’s not what we have here. I understand what you were trying to convey…my boyfriend left today for Ft. Carson and he’s most likely getting deployed in a couple months and it breaks my heart. My only problem with this war is the people who don’t support the soldiers…they’ve done nothing wrong except support the rights of those who trash talk them. I know where both of yall are coming from- yall just aren’t going the same way.
Yeah…I hear ya brothere. A couple of weeks ago I went to the funeral of a local guy (Oshkosh, WI) who died in Iraq. Those families just kill you….such amazing grief. Honestly, I’ve never heard anything like this guys wife wailing in the front of the church. Just tore me up. I think about that every day.
I’m thinking of rejoining the Army. I’ve been out for around 15 years now (counter intelligence), but really want a chance to redo that part of my life. I want to be proud of my service in the military and I’m not. I was an AWFUL soldier…maybe the worst ever. Article 15 and I had a very close, personal relationship. And I want to prove to myself and the Army that I can be a good, honorable soldier. I just need to feel a little more confident in my knees!
Keep the faith brother. You’re not the only one out here thinking about those families. I may not agree with your political opinions much, but I respect the hell out of you. Later….bubba