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| Isn't that the truth! |
Ahhhhh by now we have all, or at least I HOPE we all, have heard the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden. We heard the news last night when my cell phone lit up with an email alert about it last night about 10 PM. I think I stopped breathing for a few seconds and then sucked in about 8 gulps of air. I even had to pinch myself a few times before turning the news on tv to find out my cell phone was NOT lying to me, indeed, it had told the truth. I sat in bed almost stunned - maybe even a bit numb from it all. A man our country has sought for so very long had finally been brought to justice by, of all things, a Navy SEAL team. After serving four years in the navy myself, I can honestly say I was just a wee bit proud of that team and the navy.
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| Patriot Guard Escort Pvt. Davis Funeral May 2010 |
I thought about these events today. I think I feel just as stunned as we all did on 9/11, but let me take this a step further. So far our country alone has sacrificed almost 6000 men and women, and suffered almost 45,000 wounded casualties in the nearly ten years since 9/11. While those numbers are nowhere near the casualty rate of wars like Vietnam, the fact remains that we have paid a high cost for the life of just a select few who chose to rule as dictators in lands we simply have no real understanding of. As I watched the events unfold last night I recalled the numbers of people killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Flight 93 in Pennsylvania - alas even the number of those killed in Spain and London exacted a heavy toll, and yet thru all of this I felt a sort of disbelief that after the enormous loss of life literally exacted by this one man, he had finally been found - and served justice at the hands of OUR military.
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| The body of Capt. Wiznieski arrives home after he was killed in a helicopter July 2010 |
I have watched and supported our military since I left the service in 1986. I have watched young men and women come home, literally some right out of high school, killed in action or wounded in battle. Babies really. Young men who couldn't possibly fathom the sacrifice they would pay with their lives in the service of our country. The 19 year old Marine killed by an IED, or the 30 year old helicopter pilot whose helicopter was shot down trying to rescue a pinned down unit, or even the 22 year old who was killed while on a rescue mission to save a stranded pilot. The latest is a 32 year old Army specialist who was serving in Afghanistan, who leaves behind a wife and a daughter. When you stop and think about it, the cost of hunting this one man, the human cost this one man inflicted on our country alone has been staggering, however, this man had to be hunted down to stop the senseless bloodshed he has caused our country for over 20 years.
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| The body of Capt Wiznieski is escorted by members of the Patriot Guard, and to far right members of a B-17 Flying Fortress flying memorial - men who asked just to stand the flag line to honor a fallen hero. |
I never liked celebrating a death - any death. Life is too precious to be discarded like yesterdays newspaper. While I am not opposed to capital punishment (as in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer) the scenes that played out last night reminded me that our children have suffered, have watched friends go to war, have lived with the words "terror" and "Jihad" in a time when they should have been more concerned about the prom, or college, or just living their lives "in the timeless pursuit of happiness". They should have been allowed to find the happiness that I enjoyed even as I left military service to start a life as a husband and father. While I watched those kids come out into the streets, I realized that maybe we should give thanks to all those military men and women who serve this country to defend us all against all enemies both foreign and domestic. To those "kids" who have grown into adulthood and have put their lives on the line so that we all may be free of terror. And to their families who have suffered and toiled in the hopes that their loved one would return home safe.
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