Posted on 06/25/2006 6:29:27 AM PDT by hiho hiho
Death on a battlefield is hideously arbitrary. A soldier is in the wrong place at the wrong time, a guy fills in for a buddy on patrol, and he's dead. One moment, one decision, one split-second reaction, and all might be different.
I'm always reluctant to compound war's unfairness by singling out our war dead for special attention. Is the 2,000th casualty more worthy of notice than the 20th? Not unless you're bent on making some kind of point about a particular war.
Is one fallen soldier's story more significant than another's, except for their family and friends? Not unless you're comfortable building your case for war policy on someone else's corpse, which, it seems to me, is a special kind of war (or anti-war) crime.
And yet our war dead don't come in numbers at war's end. They come in individual names, day by day, week by week and, alas, year by year. And they come in ways that hit us all particularly hard. Some are worth noting not because their deaths are more important in any grand sense -- but because their deaths are, at once, exceptional and representative.
The deaths of Army Spc. Robert Jones and Army Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker merit such notice.
Two Oregon kids killed in a weekend. Their deaths offer Oregonians a chance to give these soldiers -- and all our soldiers -- their due and honor them on their own terms. They allow us to say what we don't say enough to all the families who've lost soldiers:
"Thank you."
Thank you for producing loved ones who gave their lives on our behalf, thank you for the sacrifice you're now called on to make because of your soldier's death.
Milwaukie's Bobby Jones joined the Army in 2003 to serve his country and, yes, help pay for college. As his aunt, Gloria Rehart told The Oregonian last week, "He was scared, but he wanted to stand up for his country. He was very proud to be a soldier. He wanted to fight for his country."
A week ago Saturday, the 22-year-old with the big grin was killed during combat in Ramadi. An explosive device went off near his vehicle, and he died instantly. Proud to be a soldier. Proud to fight for his country. Thank you, Bobby Jones. Thank you, Bobby Jones' family.
Jones' family may find some solace in knowing their soldier died instantly. Tom Tucker's family, however, can't even count on such cold comfort, which explains why Oregonians should make a special effort to reach out to them in the coming months.
Tom Tucker joined the Army in July 2005. He was looking for purpose in a young and not untroubled life. He found it, doing, his parents said, "something positive for the country." He was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to be doing.
A week ago Friday, terrorists attacked the checkpoint Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca were manning. Tuesday their savaged bodies were found south of Baghdad, victims of the barbarism we've seen too much of in the terror war.
"The family," Wes and Meg Tucker said in statement, "has come to the realization that Tom has gained a much larger family through this ordeal than he had when he left home to go help to free the Iraqi people and protect his country from the threat of terrorism."
To free the Iraqi people and protect his country from the threat of terrorism.
That's what Tucker died doing in Iraq; the manner of his death spotlights the nature and nobility of both enterprises.
What can we do? Take time over the next days, weeks and months to let Tucker's and Jones' loved ones know their soldiers' families are even larger than they now realize. As summer turns to fall, and fall to winter, and the initial shock turns to isolation and sorrow, thank them for their soldier and their sacrifice.
You can send cards and letters to: Tucker Family, c/o Public Affairs, Oregon Military Dept., P.O. Box 14350, Salem, OR 97309-5047. You can reach Bobby Jones' family at: Dowell Family, 15085 S.E. East Ave., Milwaukie, OR 97267. Remembrances are surely welcome, but just remembering -- a simple thank you -- is enough.
There are no words that can comfort these Oregon families at this hour of their mourning. But, by God's grace, the act of a simple "thank you" -- the expressed gratitude of strangers and countrymen -- might someday help.
David Reinhard, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8152 or davidreinhard@news.oregonian.com
Well-Done Soldier. You've helped to fight the good fight. We shall remember you for ages to come!
Have you heard that the wacko Fred Phelps group is going to protest the funeral of Thomas Lowell Tucker?
You mean they aren't going to show up in the Rio Grande Valley, where the second, third and more generation Americans are quite well armed, and very patriotic?
Oh, and fully in possession of their stereotypical mercurial dispositions.
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