Death of Brave Hearts

Death of Brave Hearts
by Kathie Costos
Wounded Times Blog
May 27, 2013

This morning I was searching for the total number of lives lost fighting for this country since the Revolutionary War. I was stunned to discover the lack of information to be found. Most sites have not updated their information.

Civil War Home.com stopped at the Gulf War. Memorial Day Foundation stopped reports in 2010. The headline for their site is THE PRICE OF FREEDOM Military Casualties-Source Department of Defense. The Department of Defense has the totals of fallen from Iraq at 4,422 with 3,489 KIA and 933 Non-Hostile. Operation New Dawn has 66 deaths, 38 KIA and 28 Non-Hostile. For Afghanistan as of May 24, 2013 there have been 2,220 deaths, 1,746 KIA and 470 Non-Hostile.

According to PBS these fallen joined these "battle deaths" of the 4,435 lives lost from the Revolutionary War, 2,260 from War of 1812, 1,733 from Mexican War, 140,414 from the Civil War, 385 from the Spanish American War, 53,513 from WWI, 292,131 from WWII, 33,651 from the Korean War, 47,369 from Vietnam and 148 from the Persian Gulf War.

Remembrance Cypress Grove Memorial Day

How can it be that there has been so little interest in the number of men and women giving their lives for this country that they do not merit updating? As bad as that is, the truth is even worse. No one will ever really know how many lives have been lost because they were brave enough to risk their lives for this country.

The most recent report is 22 veterans a day take their own lives. Even that is wrong since far too many are not accounted for. We will never know the true numbers but their families do.

It is not that suicides after service are new. Suicides after the risk to their lives should have ended have claimed more lives than the wars since the beginning of time. Just as illnesses associated with combat have claimed lives but we do not factor them into the total. While Non-Hostile deaths during combat are counted, deaths from Agent Orange were not. Even if they knew all the Vietnam Veterans dying because of this, few would include how many children also died. I once heard a Vietnam veteran say that if they included every death associated with the Vietnam War, it would circle Arlington National Cemetery. Exaggeration? Perhaps but also points to the simple fact that we continue to hold Memorial Day services across the nation in tribute to the brave hearts that stopped beating so the rest of us could go on.

It is not hate that drives them in battle. It is not hate that inspires risking their lives for someone else. It is love that does it. Greeks have different words to describe the different types of love. For these men and women it is Philia

(φιλία philía), which means friendship in modern Greek, a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. In ancient texts, philia denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers. This is the only other word for "love" used in the ancient text of the New Testament besides agape, but even then it is used substantially less frequently.

They served because they loved. They died because they cared. When they feel so much pain inside, it comes from caring deeply. When they are not helped to heal, that pain is too much for them to carry. These are a few of the lives lost to suicide since last Memorial Day.
Paul Adams
John Bates
Jordan C. Bordelon
Chris Bourque
William Busbee
Danny Chen
James Cho
Michael Ecker
Brad Farmer
Scott Ganz
Trever Gould
Robert Guzzo
Eric Lewis Harm
Kirk Walter Harris
Justin Junkin
Gavin Kopponen
Jerald Kruse Neil Landsberg
Peter J.N. Linnerooth
John Lutz
Michael McCaddon
Robert Marinaro
Cole Miller
Joseph Kim, Elias Monge
Ryan George Nelson
Johnnyray Nevarez
Edward S. Passetto
Jason Pemberton and Tiffany, his wife
Job Price
Jordan Riddle
Courtey Rush
Marvin Kenneth Scott
Derek Smith
Wade Austin Toothman