Knee Deep in the Hooah!

Hi Y’all!

Ky Woman (Hooah!) reporting in.  I’ve have been invited to take a stab at guest posting by my most gracious relatives, The Hooah!’s.  So far, they are still claiming me as family… Please don’t blame Claire or Mr.Hooah! for any of my mistakes.

I’ve come across something in my daily stroll through the milblog world that needs to be read by every red blooded American.  Now that I have access to a bigger audience than over at my ‘lil blog, I’m going to put it up here as well.

I found this on one of the milblogs I have kept up with for over a year.  LTC Rich Phillips was deployed to Afghanistan last year.  He spent his time at FOB Salerno.  He redeployed home this past April.  I left a comment on LTC Phillips blog “Richard’s Deployment to Afghanistan”, requesting permission to re post.  Within minutes, I received a reply to “Post away”.

‘OUR Guys’ and the honoring of Our Fallen.

Date: 10:21 AM 7/20/2008Subject:
An observation after a sad day in Afghanistan

I hope this e-mail finds each of you and your families well.

Here in southern Afghanistan it has been a sober day. We had a really bad fire fight. At this point I am not allowed to say much but our team had 18 guys vs 175-200 bad guys. They scored once; we scored many, many more. Yeah for the good guys.

Unfortunately, we held the first of several hero ceremonies, which occurs every time they move a body from one location to another. At each ceremony, every available service member will stand at attention and line the road, starting at our small morgue and eventually ending with his final flight home.

I am not sure folks back home know what happens at a small Forward Operations Base when a US kid dies in battle.

I am sure no one back home knows that this kid’s commander, who is in charge of 7000 men, helped wash the blood from this kid’s face and prepare him for the trip home. I bet they don’t know that his buddies, all rough and tough and not a sissy among them, stand like brothers, hold hands, cry and exchange hugs. I bet they don’t know that 250 people lined the walkway from our morgue to the ambulance just to salute this hero. I bet they don’t know that one of my patients, who was also injured in this attack, demanded to be pushed outside in a wheel chair so he could say good bye to his brother. I bet they don’t know that the command staff, all senior officers, marched behind the ambulance with tears streaming down their faces and carefully loaded his body onto the plane. I bet they don’t know that people line the runway, stand at attention and salute the plane until it is out of sight. I bet they don’t know that the FOB Commander orders each of the injured (who is able) to call home, so that their parents and wives, know they are OK, in an effort to ease the shock to the families when the guys in full dress uniforms show up at the family’s home. I bet they don’t know that tonight, these young men, far from home, will mourn like a family and will then pick up their weapon, wipe the tears from their eyes and head right back to the fight.

My observation: This young man has two families. The one here is already in mourning and the one back home will soon be awaken by this sad news. There are some very good men here, who care deeply for those they command and whom love each other as brothers.

Take care and let’s try to live a life worthy of his sacrifice.

~~~~~

Now, do you understand why I think everyone should read this?

It seems so long ago that I had read of ‘ramp ceremonies’, when in actuality it has only been 18 months ago. Pretty much the same amount of time our guys spend away from home for a deployment.

How many Americans who don’t have a personal interest in the global war on terror actually know and understand what happens out on the battle front? I would hazard a guess of not too dang many! I’m just doing my small part to help rectify that tragedy.

Feel free to pass this on. I’m sure that if you asked, LTC Phillips would agree.

*originally posted 9/4/08 @ Little Drops….Into the Pool of Life