![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Let's not forget
Jan. 13th, 2007 07:52 amLast night, I opened an e-mail from my sister in California. A week or so earlier, she had phoned me about an e-mail from her son Erik who was deployed with the United States Army's 75th Rangers. In it, he'd said something that made her think he might be coming home.
Then came the President's speech about "the way forward" in Iraq which seemed to mean only bad news for those waiting to come home and for the families waiting for them. And while I've rightly been accused of being a pessimist, it just made sense to fall back, once more, to "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst."
Thinking about it afterward, I'm sure if the news had been bad there would have been a phone call. When the news is bad, there's always a phone call. You know, one of those late at night things or early, early in the morning. But the subject line of the e-mail said, "When Erik came march..." and then was cut off.
When I opened it, and read the full text, it said, "When Erik comes marching home again, Hoorah, Hoorah!" A few minutes before her e-mail was sent, she'd gotten a phone call from him to say that he, and, thankfully, miraculously, his entire brigade, was safely home.
This time he talked about college, when he gets out in a month or so. Which is different from previous times when he'd talked about Blackwater and other security contractors luring special forces people with the big money, etc.
It sounded like, this time, he'd seen enough. Or had maybe processed it differently as a result of his recent training and experience as an NCO who was, in turn, responsible for training and commanding others.
Whatever the reason, I'm glad of it, for my sister's sake as well as his. And I hope he finds an opportunity in civilian life commensurate with the extraordinary dedication with which he and his fellow Rangers have served their country.
So yeah, let's celebrate that Erik is coming home, that he's physically whole and able to look forward to whatever life may hold for him. But let's not forget the tens of thousands of others like him who are still there, whose deployments will almost certainly be extended, or who will be going there shortly.
Let's be happy about this young man, about this moment. But let's not forget...
LPK
LiveJournal
1.13.2007
Then came the President's speech about "the way forward" in Iraq which seemed to mean only bad news for those waiting to come home and for the families waiting for them. And while I've rightly been accused of being a pessimist, it just made sense to fall back, once more, to "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst."
Thinking about it afterward, I'm sure if the news had been bad there would have been a phone call. When the news is bad, there's always a phone call. You know, one of those late at night things or early, early in the morning. But the subject line of the e-mail said, "When Erik came march..." and then was cut off.
When I opened it, and read the full text, it said, "When Erik comes marching home again, Hoorah, Hoorah!" A few minutes before her e-mail was sent, she'd gotten a phone call from him to say that he, and, thankfully, miraculously, his entire brigade, was safely home.
This time he talked about college, when he gets out in a month or so. Which is different from previous times when he'd talked about Blackwater and other security contractors luring special forces people with the big money, etc.
It sounded like, this time, he'd seen enough. Or had maybe processed it differently as a result of his recent training and experience as an NCO who was, in turn, responsible for training and commanding others.
Whatever the reason, I'm glad of it, for my sister's sake as well as his. And I hope he finds an opportunity in civilian life commensurate with the extraordinary dedication with which he and his fellow Rangers have served their country.
So yeah, let's celebrate that Erik is coming home, that he's physically whole and able to look forward to whatever life may hold for him. But let's not forget the tens of thousands of others like him who are still there, whose deployments will almost certainly be extended, or who will be going there shortly.
Let's be happy about this young man, about this moment. But let's not forget...
LPK
LiveJournal
1.13.2007
