A Young Soldiers Story

[FOsteology]

Today a young man singed his contract with the Armed Services. He has taken an oath to protect the Constitution of the United States of American against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

He will soon leave for basic training and then training for his primary job (MOS) in the branch of his choice. He has graduated and has been assigned to his unit.

Just a few months later he gets word they are deploying. He is a little scared but he is also excited. This is what he signed up for. He makes sure to spend time with his family. His Dad tells him he is proud of him, his Mom through tears tells him to please be safe, and his siblings are too young to understand.

He gets in country, is given live ammunition for the first time.... that is not for a firing range. He knows this is for real. He has been in country for a few months now and has been out in more than his share of combat missions. Always returning with is brothers in one piece.

They get word late one night that they are going out in the morning. Short notice but he trucks on. Yet there is an uneasy feeling that this mission is different..... everyone feels it. It's to a new AO and they say its hot. Everyone is ready and they get their marching orders. The 1SGT gives the pre-roll out information. Then he leads them all in prayer. All who wear the American patch from Atheist to Christian, to Muslim, gay, straight.... everyone lowers theirs heads.

After a few days of mission they hit a fire fight. The young man is shot and is killed. The fight is won by our side, yet his brothers can't enjoy the win. They can't stop crying. Another young man has died. His body is air lifted to the main base, his body cared for with respect, cleaned, embalmed and readied for his last flight home bound. During his ramp ceremony soldiers line both sides of the C10 ramp as bagpipes play and his brothers carry his casket into the plane. One by one, each saying goodby, some can't even make it out with out help from the plane.

His parents so grief stricken can't believe that their baby came back home early, but he came home dead. Crying in pain, his father wishes that it would have been him instead, his mother has this empty feeling in her womb, and heart. Knowing she will never hear again her baby boy say, "I love you Mom."

Yet what many forget is that this young man died doing what he wanted to do. He died with honor on the battle field protecting and fighting for his country. Protecting the Constitution of the United States. Knowing that during war time, being a soldier is great, but any other time is a thankless job. He made his family, his Armed Services, and his Country proud.

So on Memorial Day, lets take a moment.....a real moment, to thank all of those soldiers, who have died for this country for over 200 years to make this freedom we so cherish real. Thank the real heroes, not the ones we hear about all the time, but the ones we hear about when only they die, and a week later we forget.

So to all my brothers/sisters buried in Arlington, buried all over the United States and buried abroad. I salute you.

God Bless America its Armed Forces and all who have died for this great country.

[coyote101]

Amen

[FOsteology]

"Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation’s Capital just beyond, the graves of America’s military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved.
This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselvesâ€"with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America’s own have ever served and sacrificed...
Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation’s defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country’s own.”

Ronald Reagan

[shaddragger]

All gave some, some gave all. Let us never forget.

[bambam]

God bless them all.