Posted on 05/02/2006 7:06:19 AM PDT by Sutrut
This is a email from my bro who is stationed at an undisclosed location near Kandahar.
"Greetings all.
Just a quick update from Afghanistan as it begins to warm up. Weather so far has been great, but it has taken a turn for the warmer in the past 3 days, so it won’t be long before it gets really hot. We have a new contractor bringing in food, so the quality has improved from “excremental” to “occasionally edible.” Ah, the small improvements in life.
We had another ramp ceremony tonight. For those of you who don’t know, a ramp ceremony takes place when a coalition soldier is killed. As his casket is carried onto the plane for his final voyage home, all the military personnel here line the way on the ramp where the aircraft is parked, and render final honors. Let me talk about this in a bit more detail, since its not anything that ever gets reported on.
First off, when a ramp ceremony occurs, everyone, and I mean everyone attends. There is no muss, fuss, groaning, bitching, or ducking formation. Now, if you announced that $100 bills were going to be given out in a formation later today, 10% of the troops would gripe that it was not convenient, about a third would see if someone else could pick it up for them, and most of the officers would see if there would be a separate time to pick it up at their convenience.
Not a ramp ceremony. The word goes out once, and everyone shows.
Also, nationality is irrelevant. We have done these, in the short time I have been here, for US, Canadian, and French troops. But everyone shows. The US, Canadian, UK, NL, French, Romanian, Estonian, New Zealand, and Danish troops that are here in Kandahar all show up. And yes, you read correctly: French. While it has been vary fashionable for everyone to make fun of the French and denigrate them for their stance on Iraq, please recall the next time you or someone you knows is taking potshots at them, that their sons are here, and have been here since very near the beginning in 2001, and they are in a very high risk job. High risk both here and at home. You see, French troops won’t use their real names here because if they become known, the extensive numbers of Islamic terrorists living among all the north Africans that live in France target their families. Not for ugly letters, or protests, or toilet papering their houses; no, they bomb the homes of their families. They like to wait until just after the kids get home from school. After a few of those incidents in 2002, they stopped using their real names while deployed.
I can’t tell you how many troops are in these formations, but it is a good number. Anyone familiar with a military formation that is “at ease” recalls that talking, laughing, and joking are commonplace. That is what makes the silence of these formations so jarring. Other than a few embarrassed and suppressed coughs, no one speaks. For in this place with so many soldiers, it is lonely as we all prepare to say good bye to a comrade most of us never met.
Each nation does things a little different. The US takes their fallen on the plane with the pall bearers at a slow half step, with the unit commander and first sergeant following. The Canadians have a brief eulogy, then their padre leads the procession while the regimental piper pipes “amazing grace” (Since the Canadians have been here, they have graciously lent their piper to the US for the same purpose) and then they dip the national and regimental colors to the ground. The French have the unit commander eulogize the dead more fully, and he does so alternating in French and English so all can understand.
As the procession goes down between the formations, everyone salutes until they are loaded on the airplane for their final trip home. It is a long salute, but there are no complaints. It is the last honor to a fallen comrade.
Another thing to remember is that everyone here, from all the coalition forces, is a volunteer. No one was sent here against the will. Obviously, many of the US troops here are on their 2d or 3d tour. But the coalition forces are all volunteers as well. Why? We all have our own reasons. But high up on everyone’s list is the realization that there is a deep evil that lurks in the world. And while the Taliban and other organizations may not, today, pose a direct threat to the US or western Europe, this is one of the breeding grounds. Today’s Taliban is tomorrow’s Al Qaida recruit. Like it or not, it is a reality that a number of these people believe we, and western civilization, must die. They can’t be reasoned with, they can’t be persuaded, Dr Phil can’t sway them, they are not interested in dropping their AK-47 and taking up organic lettuce farming. They want to kill us. And if they can get into an organization that does it better and targets the West, they will. They have a deep, unquenchable, unchangeable compulsion and hatred. You may not like that, it may not be rational, but it is a fact.
An Afghanistan that is a friendly home to terrorist organizations, such as existed prior to 9/11, does present that direct threat. The reason Al Qaida was able to undertake the laundry list of attacks against the US prior to 9/11 is because they had not only safe haven here, but direct support. And although the west knew where they were, we never did anything to stop them. And 3000 paid the price. We knew, and did nothing. Nothing.
If we don’t do what we can to prevent that sort of regime from taking power, then we are simply allowing the infection to re-grow. We may not want to be in a war, but the war was started against us, long before 9/11. And the choice is to try to deny incubation and fight those who would target you in your homes here, or run away and allow history a chance to repeat itself.
Deep down inside, all of us who are here realize that. Afghanistan is a nation with little intrinsic value—there is no oil here, no resources that can be exploited, just poppy fields and desperately poor and unskilled people. They have a future that, even through rose colored glasses, is not exciting. At best, they might join the outer fringes of the second world. But an Afghanistan that retains its position as the protector of radical Islamic terrorism matters. And none of us who are here want to see this place matter like that again.
So when we gather, all too frequently, out on the ramp to bid adieu to a fallen comrade, we are given the chance to reflect on this, and why we are here. For me, tonight, it is clearer."
Thank you so much for this post! Please let your brother know that he and his comrades are in my prayers. And, I am thankful for the reminder of the French troops serving abraod as well.
My pleasure.
:-)
To have a "Clash of Civilizations", doesn't one require two civilizations?
Great post. thanks for sharing and reminding us to NEVER FORGET!
Yes.
This is more like a clash of the present and the middle ages.
I had no idea what the French soldiers were facing. It's almost unthinkable, at least to those of us who are still civilized.
How do you pound it into the thick skulls of these so-called peaceniks that there is no reasoning or appeasing this enemy any more than you can reason with a rabid dog or a disease.
God bless and keep all of the coalition soldiers and others who risk their lives for the future of our world.
That's a really interesting factoid about the French, and one I certainly hadn't heard about. Does anyone recall ever seeing this reported in any English-language press?
Thank you for the ping.
I'd be surprised if that was reported in the French press. This is the first I've heard of it, and I do glance at French papers from time to time. And I recently spent a few weeks in France, and I can tell you the situation there is pretty bad; chaos everywhere, although the government and the media is trying to play it down. The riots were bigger than the media reported (I was there: some days, large parts of downtown were swimming with riot police).
A salute to your brother, his fellow soldiers, and the fallen heros. Thanks for sharing this.
BTTT!
Thanks to your Brother and his comrades in arms.
God Bless You and Keep You Safe!
Thanks to all for prayers, a small addendum from same undisclosed location...
We have added the UK to the list. They do it silently, carrying the casket on their shoulders.
Nothing was worse than, though, than going out to a FOB two days after an American and Canadian were killed the same night—on a god-forsaken hill in a god-forsaken corner of this place, and while we were there, the boys on the ground had a memorial. Now, this place is manned by an ODA, and about 12 national guardsmen, and there was a platoon of Canadians there as a QRF. They had flown out in the middle of the night to reinforce, and had never even met the US soldier who was killed. Since this was in the middle of Indian country, a lot of guys were still pulling security but maybe 25 guys were there. After the chaplain said a few words, everyone who was on the FOB that night came up and paid respects to the helmet on the upturned M-16, with his boots, and dog tags hanging from his rifle.
I was alright until the Canadian platoon commander came up saluted (they do that british thing where they raise their left leg and stomp when they salute), dropped to his knees, prayed for a moment, looked at his dog tags for a moment, then ripped off his Canada flag patch and placed it next to the forever empty boots. He then stood and rendered the salute again. The rest of Canadians followed suit. Slowly. One at a time. Each one.
me: YOU CANNOT SUPPORT THE TROOPS UNLESS YOU SUPPORT THE MISSION, PERIOD!
Are you 'me' ; )
Either way, I agree. Thank you so much for posting this.
Just exactly right!
Thank you for sharing your brother's e-mail with us.
God Bless our troops and coalition forces!
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