I took today off, 5 soldiers died

I didn't post today because my husband and I met some friends at Epcot. It rained most of the day but it was a lot of fun enjoying the day with good friends. I needed it. I spent the time we were gone not thinking about Iraq or Afghanistan, not thinking about the pain and the burdens the soldiers and their families are dealing with and not thinking about the devastation across this nation the wounded veterans are dealing with. The news was shut off at 8:30 am and my PC was shut down at 9:30 am. I am just getting done with the emails to go through and now it dawns on me even more than normal how easy it is to shut out the two occupations, shut out the hurting and shut out the pain so many are going through all across this country.

North, south, east and west, pick a state and you'll find them. You'll find the soldier's wife with a couple of kids trying to survive yet one more deployment wondering how it is she never thought of herself as a single Mom when she became a military wife. You'll find the father who just sent his wife off to Iraq for another deployment and he's left to raise the kids and spend yet one more night wondering if she is safe. You'll find a young solider who planned on spending the rest of his life in the military and joined right out of high school only to have been driving the Humvee that managed to find the IED and now wondering if he will ever be loved, ever find a job and ever find the reason to keep waking up in the morning. You'll find the veteran who noticed that while his body came back in one piece from the combat he lived through, he never really came back all the way. A part of him died there and the part that replaced it, is a stranger to him.

The problem is, you won't find them unless you look for them but they are all around you.

They are the couple of Vietnam veterans that just walked by you at Epcot. One came back fine and the other came back with the ghosts of Vietnam chasing him all these years. They became friends in Vietnam but lost track of each other until one tenacious wife trying to learn more tracked the other one down. That phone call ended up being years before the two veterans would talk on the phone. Another couple of years before they actually saw each other and shared a meal, memories and glances only the two of them understood. They were just two more pals who managed to act as if they see each other all the time because while both went on with their lives, a part of them stayed the same young kids who left their homes for Vietnam.

It's easy to escape what is going on and forget about all of it when we are trying to live our own lives, deal with our own pain, our own problems and seek our own goals. It's too easy to shut the news off, flip the channel or go out and do something fun. It's easy to bypass all the news online and find what we are interested in, delete the update we received because we just don't have time for it.

Life went on here as if nothing important was going on. We lost 5 soldiers today.
04/06/08 LATimes: Five Americans, up to 22 Iraqis killed
Three American soldiers died from rocket attacks in Baghdad today, while fighting between Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia and U.S.-led forces paralyzed the capital's Sadr City neighborhood and left up to 22 Iraqis dead.

At some point today there was a door bell ringing in five houses today. Five families got the news no military family ever wants to hear, "We regret to inform you" your family member is gone. How many of these soldiers had parents still alive, wives and kids? We'll never know unless we go looking for the news reports to know who these soldiers left behind. We'll never know what kind of dreams they had of how they wanted their lives to be, why they joined or how many people cared for them unless we look to find the reports.

For the families left behind, no one will know what happened to them, if they got on with their lives ok or not.

Rocket attacks ended the stories of five of our soldiers today and I didn't know when I was walking around Epcot thinking about how long it would take standing in line waiting for a ride. I didn't know when I was complaining about the rain and feeling miserable with my feet wet. I didn't know when I was sitting in China and eating with chopsticks. While I was on Space Ship Earth, the ride that accounts how technology has linked the world's people to each other, a family was being torn apart, a unit back in Iraq was grieving the loss of these soldiers and wondering when it would be their turn or how long they had to last one more day, week or month before going home.

We'll never know if they will end up being two long lost friends 30 years from now who can catch up in a moment of time as if they have never been apart. Strange how things work out for some but we'll never know unless we know them.

The problem is most of us will never know any of them. We won't know their stories. We won't know what happened from day to day unless we pay attention. But we live in a nation where it's just too easy to take the time off, shut the news off, shut the two occupations off and act as if nothing was going on at all. Most of us don't know anyone serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Most of us haven't a clue if someone in our office has a son or a daughter over there or a kid who goes to school with our kids spent another night praying for their parent over there. Most of us won't know because it's too easy to not ask, not wonder, and to not even really care.

Today, as with "play days" with my husband are much needed so that I can do what I do the rest of the week. These are the times I don't think about them over there or what happens when they come home. Rare times for me and so many others across the nation who do invest the time to learn what is going on. Readers of this blog are among those who do care of they wouldn't spend their time reading a blog that is mostly depressing when it comes to the wounds they carry. We are rare though when you think about the blogs and sites that get the most hits. All in all I feel sorry for them because they have spent so much time never knowing any of these men or women or the families. As for me right this moment, I'm getting ready to go to bed and feeling guilty about the time I took for myself today when I didn't think about them or the five we lost today or the families who got the news, someone they love is gone.




Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington