It is a lot to ask I know, I live with the pain every day, but we still have a duty, we still have our honor. We still have our oath to fight against all enemies foreign and domestic. The domestic enemy is still out there, and we must fight by simply staying alive. It is much to ask, your injuries were more severe than mine.
We must force them to see us, we must make them see us, we are the instrument that will bring about a lasting peace for our nation, and with hope and faith in those citizens of our Nation that we signed up to serve, even though our devotion to our country and to those citizens was stolen by corporate greed and corrupt and depraved political figures, it is to those citizens that we owe our allegiance. To this land that those who bore us helped to build, and to the children who do not yet understand what has happened over the last 10 years.
My daughter was not yet 2 when I left to go to war, I too was wounded in 2004, Dec 5th, a date I'll always remember because I lost 3 men that day, and I've had to live with the fact I survived and they did not. We must endure the pain, my 13 year old knows what the war has cost. She sees it every day because her dad has only one leg. Her friends come over and meet me and they stare, for a little, and ask what happened.
I get to tell them what happened Tomas, that's our duty, to tell them what happened. At first they look horrified, and then I find them nodding to themselves, and when they leave they have a look of resolution on their faces. These 12 and 13 year old girls who tell my daughter she has " The Coolest Dad ", who are so much more aware in this information age than we were, they looked resolved and they understand what the cost of the war really was.
I've been invited to speak at my daughter's school, I've told them about the war and my part in it, and of course, what happened to my leg. I tell them, and some look shocked, but I always have everyone's attention, even the one or two who always look like they don't want to be there, all of a sudden I have their interest. So I tell them the truth, and I look over their faces, and again I see that resolve, the resolve to fight any attempt to ever let this happen again.
I've seen it over and over again in the last eight years ( it amazes me to think it's gone on so long ) people stepping up to make sure the story is told. I've seen teachers who know they could get in trouble for allowing such " graphic " or " inappropriate " or " political " discussion be presented in their classroom, resolve themselves to the truth. To put fact over compliance. The world needs us Tomas Young, at least a little longer. You and I both know that one never stops being a soldier, we know it because at the end, when we think of the end of our lives, we think of " a soldier's death " not of " death " but " a soldier's death ". It's the product of what we have seen, of what we have done.
The world still needs us Tomas, who better than us to stand or sit, or be rolled in front of the cameras. Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer was fired from BAE because he opposed them selling weapons to enemies of the United States. No one has covered that, but if they did, if we could make them, they could not ignore us. Who else is going to stand up to BAE, or Halliburton? Our country still needs us, and our ends will find us one day. We'll climb that last hill one day. Not today though Tomas, not today. Today our country needs us. I sincerely hope that somehow you read these words, on a small blog, from someone you never met.
I hope somehow you do, because Tomas, you are my brother, and I am trying to, desperately trying to, grab your hand and pull you out of the line of fire, and tell you to dust yourself off, that we still have a job to do. It's time to honor those who gave it all, by making sure those who were their true enemies are not met unopposed. If these words never reach you, I want to say thank you for saying what you did, and that it was an honor to serve with men like you.
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