Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Thinking About The Military
First I want to call your attention to this personal account of the loss of 4 soldiers to an IED in Afghanistan. Captain Dan concludes
Then I want to look at a post from recently home Firepower Forward
On September 11, 2001 that dangerous darkness came here and I, for one, was far more afraid than I was in the foreign lands. I had no precautions, I was unprepared.
I am most grateful for those that have caused the dangerous darkness to retreat to foreign lands, and add to that gratitude deep humility for those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to force that retreat.
We cannot afford to forget.
Related Tags: military, Afghanistan, September 11, darkness, fear
Please keep these brave soldiers in your thoughts and prayers.You bet I will Capt. Dan, and I trust my readers will as well.
Then I want to look at a post from recently home Firepower Forward
During one of these moments of doing nothing when Pam and I were sitting on the front porch watching the sun set over Pikes Peak she suddenly asked me if I had ever been afraid. The answer; the honest answer; was 'yes', but not when someone looking from the outside might have thought. The fear hadn't come when riding in Blackhawks or Chinooks over inhospitable terrain, or when crouched in concrete bunkers with rockets exploding around us. I remember that I genuinely felt the cold touch of fear on my heart while staring into the absolute blackness of a Salerno night and realizing that that darkness held people close at hand that wanted to kill me. Having grown up in the security of America's borders, this thought had been only an abstraction to me as I'm sure it is to most Americans.I just want to second this in my meagre way. I have never been in the military but the vagaries of life have seen me, on a few occassions, in foreign lands where the darkness held people that would have greatly enjoyed an American pelt on the mantle. It's an interesting situation to be in, but one you prepare yourself for before you go and one for which you take appropriate precautions. Most importantly you know that you will return home and that dangerous darkness will retreat into memory.
I had thought back to another night nearly 4 years earlier when I had felt fear of what the darkness held. I had watched the horrific events of September 11th on the large screen TVs at the Merrill Lynch Campus in South Denver and had felt the same shock, horror, and disbelief that each of us did. Driving home that night though, I had crested the top of an exit ramp on the far eastern edge of the Denver metropolitan sprawl when I had been struck by the absoluteness of the dark. From where I sat that night, I should have seen the lights of dozens of planes either landing or departing from DIA but instead there was just the suffocating blackness of an empty sky. It was the first tangible evidence that I had seen of that day's events and I had been horrified at what the darkness held.
On September 11, 2001 that dangerous darkness came here and I, for one, was far more afraid than I was in the foreign lands. I had no precautions, I was unprepared.
I am most grateful for those that have caused the dangerous darkness to retreat to foreign lands, and add to that gratitude deep humility for those that have made the ultimate sacrifice to force that retreat.
We cannot afford to forget.
Related Tags: military, Afghanistan, September 11, darkness, fear
