looking forward
The deaths of so many people I know has weighed heavily upon me, but it is something I think I was ready for. In fact, with the war raging as long as it has, it suprises me that I haven't really faced it until now. With Mark's death, the idea of loss and death and war hit home, with my civilian friends, in a way it hadn't before either. This is an email I got from a friend of mine in regards to the loss:
The first of my friends from the class of 2007 are making their ways to Iraq and Afghanistan now, mostly those in non-combat arms branches. It is very strange to think that the war will now be fought by my peers, by people with as much training as I have. They are no longer "soldiers" in the generic sense of the word, people in uniform that I don't know personally, but they are all individuals with names and stories and families and fears just like mine.
It is odd thinking about how long it will be before I see many of them again. After graduation, we had BOLC II and BOLCIII where we were with almost all West Pointers in training. Now, for the first time, I'm going to a unit where there will only be one or two of us. Moreover, with our deployments overlapping and scheduling, it may be years before I see some of my best friends again. Strange to think of. The idea that I may never see some again, however, is one which I choose not to think of yet.
i had becoome immune to this war. so much of what you see on television is so scary that i'd learned to block it out. but when [he] called me it became so personal. it's really upset me, now every mention of it, and there are so many, makes me think of the great loss this country is going thru. i'm so sorry about your mentor. i was looking forward to seeing mark at our reunion. it's just so sad.I've often asked, sometimes on this blog, if the war has become just background noise to life as usual here in the states. This email makes me think that, for many, it has. However, for those of us for whom the war is real, it continues, and more and more of our friends and family continue to fight it.
The first of my friends from the class of 2007 are making their ways to Iraq and Afghanistan now, mostly those in non-combat arms branches. It is very strange to think that the war will now be fought by my peers, by people with as much training as I have. They are no longer "soldiers" in the generic sense of the word, people in uniform that I don't know personally, but they are all individuals with names and stories and families and fears just like mine.
It is odd thinking about how long it will be before I see many of them again. After graduation, we had BOLC II and BOLCIII where we were with almost all West Pointers in training. Now, for the first time, I'm going to a unit where there will only be one or two of us. Moreover, with our deployments overlapping and scheduling, it may be years before I see some of my best friends again. Strange to think of. The idea that I may never see some again, however, is one which I choose not to think of yet.
posted by Adam at 8:26 AM
2 Comments:
I'll be trying to send positive energy and good thoughts to you and your friends/comrades in arms particularly during Christmas and New Year's. And I will hope fervently that we will elect a Commander-in-Chief in '08 who will take care to deploy you where you can make a real and serious difference in the fate of the world. I respect what all of you do and your willingness to defend us and to some real extent heal the world.
I am very sorry for the loss of your friend. I give ALL of you the honor and respect as you risk and give your lives selflessly for us. Thank you. May God Bless you and keep you all.
Antoinette
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