Dealing With Death; Vietnam Era

NOTR made a posted a response to my journal here in which he describes how the Army dealt with death during the Vietnam War.

What a stark contrast to my war where we tagged and bagged the personal effects of the roommate that had pulled pitch that morning and departed with a jaunty,"FU NOTR, keep the beer cold for when I get back." As we would separate the "stuff" inappropriate to get shipped home we would tell ourselves,"S*** happens - it don't mean nuthin." It was a lie of course. It was always hard.

I just thank God that I wasn't born thirty years earlier. People who say that Iraq is this generation's Vietnam really have no idea what they're talking about.

Death is Too Good For Them

Here's a link for the CNN story.
Here

I uploaded the photos in this post at a higher resolution than I usually use. To see these photos full size, go to my online photo album.
Here

Yesterday my platoon passed by the Al Sadeer Hotel.


We've passed by the Sadeer Hotel several times while on missions. This day was different however, because the day before a minibus packed with explosives pulled up to the checkpoint and detonated, destroying several homes and businesses and killing twelve people. The target was the Sadeer Hotel, which is sometimes used by American contractors. But the stupid bastards couldn't even get through the gate. So instead, they killed a bunch innocent bystanders outside the hotel's fortifications who were just trying to get on with their lives.



Here's a car destroyed by the blast, laying behind a pile of sand brought in to fill the huge hole in the road, apparently.


These are second and third floor apartments that were damaged or destroyed. The hanging metal stuff is leftovers of a billboard. At the bottom, you can see the tops of blast walls that were added after the explosion.


On the first floor, behind the blast wall, there was a business that sold air conditioners, generators, and other appliances. That's all completely destroyed now.


Across the street from the Al Sadeer, this used to be a resturaunt and cafe. Above the cafe, there was a hand-painted sign of a jolly fat man holding a big hunk of meat on a spit. There would frequently be a group of men milling about the front of the cafe, eating and talking.

There's been alot of talk lately about accusations of torture against American soldiers. Now, I'm not saying that I condone torture. I just think that I would really like to torture the guys who put these car bombs together. I mean, a couple weeks ago, a guy drove a car bomb up to a group of soldiers handing out candy to children, killing one soldier and about a dozen kids. I think it would be really nice if we could capture al-Zaquarwi, chain him to the gound, and use him as a human ashtray until he dies. I would extinguish a cigarette, right in his ear. Damn, and I don't even smoke.

A Hero's Goodbye

I'm kind of new to the whole blogosphere thing, so I was surprised to see complete strangers not just reading, but actually responding to my blog. And the fact that the responses have been largely positive is encouraging.

Most of the responses concerned my entries about the three men killed in action in my battery. My blog came to the attention of several family members of SPC Dustin Fisher, one of the men who died. They wrote me with positive comments also. This makes me glad, because if my blog does nothing else but honor the brave men that my unit lost, then I can consider my effort well worth it.

Erica, one of SPC Fisher's cousins wrote me...

Dustin's funeral was a week ago Monday, and I have to
tell you that the community was so wonderful and came out in droves to pay
their respects to our fallen hero. It was just an awesome sight to see the
streets lined with people with their flags, saluting or hands over their
hearts, as we made our sad trek from the church to the cemetery.

This makes me really happy, to know that Fisher recieved the hero's farewell that he deserved. This kind of public memorial is not just good for the family, it's good for the community and America as whole. Necessary, so that we don't forget the sacrifices made for freedom.

But the War goes on. And hopefully, so will my journal. Thank you to all my readers.