Price of war

In peace the sons bury their fathers, but in war the fathers bury their sons.

Croesus

Image from http://web.knoxnews.com/silence/archives/soldier.jpg

Sacrifice on the Home Front?

I got a very nice response from a member of the 2nd Platoon A Co. 2-136 CAB, which is Josh Hanson's platoon and I want to thank them and everybody who has been supportive of this blog. To the second platoon I say, stay safe and come home soon.

I used to wonder what it was like for my mother who was on the "home front" during the second world war. I wondered about the feelings of solidarity that must have been common to all the people on rations who were blacking out their windows in case of air raids and saving their rags and tin foil for the war effort. I imagined what it must be like to hear the reports on the radio and thought it must be wonderful to feel like one is a part of a group of people that is sacrificing their well being for a greater cause.

WWII PAPER DRIVE IN NORFOLK VA

I was a child when the U.S. went to war in Viet Nam. There was no agreement in my community about the purpose of the war. The radio and television did not send reassuring messaages, but instead we saw the misery of the people in Viet Nam and the discord caused by American public disagreement about the war. I told myself that this was a different situation and besides this wasn't a real war. Congress had never declared war and although those who supported the war effort seemed to have high ideals, there was so much disagreement about why we were there and then of course we found out that the Gulf of Tonkin incident had been manufactured and that there were dark shadows to those so-called ideals.

GAS RATION STAMPS FROM WWII


Now I am an adult and I once again am in the situation to examine a war on the "home front." I have met no one without tremendous sympathy and support for the soldiers who are abroad. (I hear this is different from the way people felt about the troops in the Viet Nam era - I was young with big ears and avid curiosity, and I have to say that I never met people even then, even among the most fervid anti-war protestors who believed that the soldiers were to blame). I have once again seen us enter a war based on ideals and wonder about the dark shadow of weapons of mass destruction that was used to propel the United States into war.

I can not decide where the differences lie. There has been no drive to ask the people at home to make sacrifices for this war. In fact after September 11th the only thing I can remember is a President that asked us to go out and shop. There has been no acknowledgement that war is a costly affair and no honest talking to the public about the costs of war and the value to be gotten from it. On TV we at home are shielded from the horrors. We see young, happy, smiling soldiers and images of "surgical strikes" that look like firework. We rarely see the aftereffects of the fighting. If we see the injured they are optimistic and determined to live without their limbs. We are not even allowed to see the caskets of the brave American soldiers who have given their lives. We have no data on the numbers of people wounded nor of the numbers of Iraqi casualties.We have a ery limited sense of what is happening on the real front. It seems to me that if the Government wants our support, then it owes us honest and clear acknowledgements of what is really going on and what our actions involve. It owes us a voice in what is done, instead of simply striving to manipulate us into comfortable ignorance and assuring us that our way of life need not be affected.

SCHOOL VICTORY GARDEN


I will not believe that people are so cynical today that they can not be appealed to in a rational and reasonable way. I can only believe that the government has forgotten how to talk to people about the important things. I feel like I am being treated like a child that is not yet old enough to hear the whole story. Why would those in government dissemble, create false fears and raise misleading information about weapons of mass destruction? I am ready to hear what the adults are talking about. I want to know the whole story. Perhaps if we had all the relevant information they fear we would not have supported the war, perhaps they have lost touch with our humanity.Perhaps they have lost touch with their own. I can not say what the answer is, but this remains for me a very disconcerting issue.

Images from www.npl.lib.va.us/sgm/ oldlobby/archives/wwii.html

Honoring the Dead

I've started this blog in order to record a moving experience that I had today. The American Friends Service Committee has set up a memorial to those who have lost their lives in the recent wars.AFS gathered shoes and boots and set them out in rows to symbolize the loss of wars in general and this war in particular. 44 pair of boots stand in the room, each from a Minnesota soldier who gave his or her life in Iraq. A poster indicates that between 420,000 and 790, 000 Iraqis have also lost their lives and that there would need to be 50 pair of shoes for each one they put out to symbolize this loss of Iraqi life. It is an imposing sight to see these shoes set out on the floor of a room that used to be a church. They sit there empty as if they are waiting for their owners to come by and put them on again, and while these may not be the actual boots of those soldiers and civilians, each set of shoes reflects symbolically its prior wearer's character and speaks volumes about what can never be replaced, about the light and lives of both civilian and military people now gone because of the horrible events of war.

I dedicate this blog to the memory of National Guard Staff Sgt. Joshua Robert Hanson, 27, of Dent, Minn., killed in action near Khalidiyah, Iraq, on Aug. 30, 2006, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle.













Today I went to a different campus to see the exhibit again. The shoes were laid out differently. The message is the same and it is still powerful. Here are some photos from the second installation.



I have tried to portray the character of some of the shoes and thus their wearers so that we can remember their spirit, their hopes and their embodiment of human light. You can click on the individual images to see a larger version of the photograph.


















In Memoriam:

Pfc. Edward Herrgott, 20, of Shakopee - July 3, 2003

Sgt. Brian Hellermann, 35, formerly of Freeport - Aug. 6, 2003

Staff Sgt. Dale Panchot, 26, of Northome - Nov. 17, 2003

Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Dorff, 32, of Minneapolis - Jan. 25, 2004

Pfc. Matthew Milczark, 18, of Kettle River - March 7, 2004

Cpl. Tyler Fey, 22, of Eden Prairie - April 4, 2004

Pfc. Moises Langhorst, 19, of Moose Lake - April 5, 2004

Lance Cpl. Levi Angell, 20, of Cloquet - April 8, 2004

Spec. James Holmes, 28, of East Grand Forks - May 8, 2004

Cpl. Demetrius Rice, 24, of Ortonville - July 14, 2004

Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, of Zimmerman - Sept. 11, 2004

Civilian contractor John Pinsonneault, 39, of North Branch - Oct. 14, 2004

Spec. Daniel James McConnell, 27, of Duluth - Nov. 16, 2004

Spec. Dwayne Bellanger McFarlane, 20, of Cass Lake - Jan. 9, 2005

Sgt. Michael C. Carlson, 22, of St. Paul - Jan. 24, 2005

Sgt. 1st Class Mickey E. Zaun, 27, of Brooklyn Park - Jan. 28, 2005

First Lt. Jason Timmerman, 24, of Tracy - Feb. 21, 2005

Staff Sgt. David Day, 25, of Morris - Feb. 21, 2005

Sgt. Jesse Lhotka, 24, of Appleton - Feb. 21, 2005

Spec. Travis Bruce, 22, of Rochester - March 23, 2005

Capt. Kelly C. Hinz, 30, of Woodbury - May 2, 2005

Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Lourey, 41, of Kerrick - May 26, 2005

First Lt. Michael Fasnacht, 25, of Mankato - June 8, 2005

Sgt. Bryan James Opskar, 32, of Moorhead - July 23, 2005

Sgt. Mike Benson, 40, of Winona - Aug. 10, 2005

Pfc. Elden D. Arcand, 22, of White Bear Lake - Aug. 21, 2005

Spec. Jacob Vanderbosch, 21, of Vadnais Heights - Oct. 3, 2005

Master Sgt. Brett E. Angus, 40, of St. Paul - Nov. 26, 2005

Lance Cpl. Scott Modeen, 24, of New Hope - Dec. 1, 2005

Cpl. Anthony McElveen, 21, of Little Falls - Dec. 1, 2005

Staff Sgt. Kenneth Pospisil, 35, of Andover - Dec. 14, 2005

Private security officer Kyle M. Kaszynski, 39, of Minneapolis - December 22, 2005

Civilian Roland C. Barvels, 42, Fairmont, - January 18, 2006

Army Reserve Maj. Stuart Anderson, 44, of Benson, - January 7, 2006

Cpl. Andrew Kemple, 23, of Cambridge - Feb. 12, 2006

Chief Warrant Officer Eric W. Totten, 34, of St. Paul - May 5, 2006

Lance Cpl. Robert Posivio, III, 22, of Sherburn - May 23, 2006

Marine Capt. Nathanael J. Doring, 31, of Apple Valle, - May 30, 2006

Army National Guard Sgt. Brent Koch, 22, of Morton, - June 16, 2006,

Army National Guard Specialist Kyle Miller, 19, of Willmar - June 29, 2006

Army Specialist Troy C. Linden, 22, of Detroit Lakes - July 8, 2006

Army Specialist Qixing Lee, 20, of north Minneapolis - August 27, 2006

Staff Sgt. Joshua Hanson, 27 of Detroit Lakes/Dent - August 30, 2006

Marine Cpl. Johnathan Benson, 21, of North Branch, - September 9, 2006

Staff Sgt. Kevin M. Witte, 27, formerly of Beardsley - October 20, 2006

Navy Petty Officer Second Class Chuck Komppa, 35, formerly of Sebeka - October 25, 2006

National Guard Army Spec. Bryan McDonough, 22, of Maplewood- December 2, 2006

National Guard Army Spec. Corey J. Rystad, 20, of Red Lake Falls - December 2, 2006

National Guard Spec. Nicholas Turcotte, 23, of Maple Grove- December 4, 2006

Sergeant James M. Wosika, Jr., 24 of St. Paul, - January 9, 2007

Sgt. Maj. Michael Mettille, 44, of West St. Paul - February 3, 2007

Staff Sgt. David Day, of St. Louis Park - February 5, 2007

1st Lt. Jason Timmerman of Tracy, - February 5, 2007

Sgt. Jesse Lhotka of Appleton. - February 5, 2007

Sgt. William J. Beardsley, 25 of Coon Rapids, - February 26, 2007.

Sgt. Chad M. Allen, 25 of Maple Lake. - February 26 2007.