Thursday, November 12, 2009

Veteran's Day


Happy Veteran's Day, my son. I am proud of your service to our country. You always identified yourself as a warrior and that's what you wanted to be. I am sad for you that even that career ambition was denied to you because of your asthma, and sad that in part, your military service contributed to your suicide. You deserved better treatment and recognition than you got, and I am amazed that you could persevere as long as you did, from completing basic training with a broken foot to sticking out infantry duty with asthma so severe. We will never know what caused it, but it must have been excruciating to try to carry all that gear and a machine gun on long marches or to run when you couldn't get your breath.

I am sad that you aren't here to celebrate this day with us. How I wish you were!

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