The christmas I will never forget

[pasto76]

Was in Iraq. 24DEC2003. We were convoying in the Sammara area, from our TAA to a building in part of a suburb. We were supposed to fortify a building to be used as a police station> Long story short, when we got there, bad guys had blown up the building the night before. The restaurant next to it was still sweeping up the broken glass of their windows when we arrived.

For the rest of the story - my convoy was late leaving the TAA. As we rolled through the streets approacging highway 1, we encountered a parking lot on the onramp. Stopped in traffic, word comes back that another convoy had been hit by EID just a few minutes ago. 2 soldiers had been killed.

I remember thinking that their families may get notified today (US time) or on christmas day. how awful would that be. I never knew the soldiers, met them, or know anything about them. But every year since it has really torn me up to know that there are two families out there who get to relive their grief every year while the rest of us relax and celebrate time with our families.

Think about that, share their pain. Get emotionally involved. If hearing about soldiers deaths doesnt make you want to carve into your guts with a spoon to ease the pain, you are not involved. My soldiers have sacrificed for years now, and I cant really explain to you why. Dont ever forget them.

Hopefully the pain of their families, a few years later, is somehow less.

SGT PASTO

[Shiver]

1. No words are sufficient. K&R.

[kentuck]

2. Sarge...

We sympathize with your memories because they will be with you forever. Some of us know. I doubt that you will find another site with as many veterans, especially Vietnam veterans, of which I am one, as the one you are now reading. We appreciate your sacrifice. We have been there before. I do believe, and it is only my opinion, that this war was even more ill-conceived than the Vietnam War. Neither had a great deal of intelligence involved. War is never the answer. It is an impossible mission. After much pain and destruction, we build back newer schools, newer roads, newer everything and we call it a victory. But we can never build back anew the pain and suffering of those that have lost loved ones in their own country because of war. War sucks.





















It is beyond patriotism.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Words fail....

;(

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Welcome home soldier

and as a medic I have my story, does not involve Iraq, but a suicide

Young man, about nineteen, He had a hell of a life, from what we heard,

When EMS arrived he had hung himself. Usually in cases like that there is nothing to do, but he still had a pulse

The crew worked the code and transported, he coded five minutes before the 24th ended. We worked that code for 25 minutes, part of the reason, that the death certificate would not say December 24th.

There are great and small tragedies around...

My other story involves a five year old, playing in the street while mom made dinner, for Christmas night. She was run over by a drunk. Her skull collapsed under the weight of the car, I had to declare that kid on the 24th of December, at 17:05 hours, in 1990... I still see her at night, every year. And she was not my child. She had pretty brown eyes, and raven black hair, soft as silk, where the blood had not pooled, and her skin was dark, but ashen... her blue lips, and swollen tongue still haunt me. All we could do was call the coroner's. there was no pulse or rhythm, and there probably had not been any for as long as it took us to get on scene, probably fifteen minutes. I was the one who had to tell mom that we could not do a thing... I was the one who took her in a warm embrace and let her cry on my shoulder for as long as she needed, and it was me who called the priest and others in the family...


Of course the year we called the year of suicides comes to mind, but I think enough horrors have been spoken off in this post.

Welcome home soldier, most people will not understand why ... and sergeant the pain and the memories never go away. They never ever do. Been over twelve years for some of them. Been longer for a few, like the one I posted on the top. That was my first christmas on duty, I was just 19, dumb and would live forever... that was my baptism you could say.

Welcome home and enjoy your family, and the quiet evening away from the horrors, Why I try every year, to drive those memories away, and every year, they come flooding back... like clockwork.

[madeline_con]

5. "Dont ever forget them."

Never.

Thank you Sergeant.


:patriot:

[TahitiNut]

6. "The best way to Honor Fallen Soldiers is to Demand the Truth from our Politicians."

Thus has it always been. :patriot:

USArmy 1968-1969, Long Binh Post, USARV HQ, E5

[OhioBlue]

7. thank you for the post

It does us all good to remember and think about others and what they are going through at this time. We all get caught up in our own lives and causes. Personally, I became politically involved b/c of the Iraq war. I sent care packages to friends and family member and through anysoldier.com in the past. In more recent times, I've been more focused on my son (16 mos) and the current economic troubles and how they are affecting those close to me.

Your post is important to me - and does make me reflect and think about our soldiers and their families. It makes me take think about those lost and their families. Thank you for posting.

[WildEyedLiberal]

8. Thanks for your post

I just lit a candle for all our servicemen and women who are away from their families, in harm's way, on this Christmas day. I know lighting a candle doesn't do much good, but I hope at least they know that our thoughts are with them.

Thanks for reminding us.