Author’s note: With all the things going on with the Gulf, economy, etc., it’s easy to forget there are still two wars going on. But the wars are very real for these 17 families. This one was difficult to write, because I looked into each and every name on the June list of war casualties. Links to each are provided on my Examiner page.
Excerpt:
Another 17 families spent their first Father’s day without a father, or a son. The pentagon has released the names of 17 service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan thus far in June, bringing the total to 214 for 2010.
The members of the armed services who put their lives on the line and make the ultimate sacrifice seem to be getting less and less attention.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the death of 10 NATO troops on Monday June 7, including five Americans was recorded on page 10 of The Washington Post. And although it published a photograph on its front page, The New York Times coverage was confined mostly to a bottom corner of page 12.
It is a safe assumption that most Americans who have been paying attention to the news in the corporate media do not how many service members died in June, and even fewer know their names. To whom it may concern, here are their names and some details about each one of them:
US Army SPC Christian M. Adams, 26, Sierra Vista, AZ. Adams left behind a wife, Donna, and a 2-year-old daughter, Faith. He was described by his stepfather as a religious man who loved his family and the military.
US Army SPC Brian M. Anderson, 24, Harrisonburg, VA. Anderson, killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan, is survived by his father, mother, brother and sister.
US Marines LCpl Michael C. Bailey, 29, Park Hills, MO. Bailey was killed by small arms fire in Afghanistan on June 16. His high school principal said, “he was always there for everybody else. He was always willing to help. And one of the things I will never forget about Mike was that he always had a smile on his face.”
US Army Capt. Michael P. Cassidy, 41, Simpsonville, SC. Cassidy was killed in Mosul, Iraq on June 17. After serving in the National Guard for years, Cassidy volunteered for active duty shortly after Sep. 11, 2001. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
US Army SPC Matthew R. Catlett, 23, Houston, TX. After serving three years in Iraq, Catlett headed to Afghanistan where he was killed by an IED on June 7 along with four other soldiers from the 101st Airborne. He is survived by his ex-wife and two daughters.
And the list goes on and on…(all 17 are covered in the main article).
There is a bigger picture here. 17 may not sound like a large number when given a 30-second sound byte or a few sentences, but it is very large when ones looks into the lives that each and every one of these individuals could have had. Besides honoring each and every one of these young men, fathers, husbands, sons by at least mentioning their names and telling a little about them or how they died, there is more that Americans can do. Americans could start by demanding an end to these wars.
There are now 4407 military personnel who have died in Iraq and 1124 who have died in Afghanistan, each with their their own story, and a life and loved ones they have left behind. 5531 families without fathers or sons this past Father’s day, not to mention the tens of thousands that have been horribly wounded in these wars. With all the other problems that this nation faces today, is it not about time to end this insanity?
A lot of Americans voted for a leader that promised to bring an end to the wars, yet nothing substantive has been done toward that end. Meanwhile, the corporate media buries news about the wars, leaving these brave young men and women to die with a hardly a mention to their names. They deserve more. We as a nation deserve more.
Our young people are not fighting a foreign enemy bent on invading our homeland, they are occupying the homeland of other nations and are paying for that with their lives. Meanwhile our homeland and our economy is being destroyed by the very corporations that reap the profits from these wars and from the reckless spending of our tax dollars that finance the wars.
Perhaps the best way to support our troops is to bring them home. And the best way to protect America may be to protect our borders, our shorelines and our economy by focusing our resources on solutions to the problems that we have here, not rebuilding other nations halfway across the globe.
Read more and get links here: Orlando Independent Examiner, 17 service members die in June, 17 more families without fathers or sons on Father’s day