The victims of the Virginia Tech shootings were honored via Presidential order last week; all flags were to be flown at half-staff until yesterday (April 22nd). When I heard of this, my first thought was of all the men and women who have died over the course of the last five and a half years serving their nation in Iraq, Afghanistan and other locales.
Evidently, I am not the only person who noticed. The simple truth is that the casualties of the War on Terror have become background noise. It's much more important to know who was voted off 'American Idol' or which celebrity arrived at the club sans panties than it is to know the names of those who have given all in the service of this nation. For us.
So, starting today, I will list the names of any American military member who dies in a combat zone. If I can find a biography, I will include that also. It's the least I can do, and I should have started doing it long before now. Here are the first two heroes:
Army Sgt. Alexander Van Aalten
21, of Monterey, Tenn.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died Apr. 20 in Sangin, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when a land mine detonated near his unit during combat operations.
Marine Lance Cpl. Jeffery A. Bishop
No biographical information available at this time.
Posted by Matthew at April 23, 2007 08:08 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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I have a supervisor here where I work that teared up watching the news about Virginia Tech, and I asked her why. She said something to the effect of "Because that's just so sad that those students died and their families must be so hurt." I then asked why she never cried for the thousands of civilians who have been slaughtered by their own countrymen in Iraq or any other given "-stan" nation, or the children that are so hungry in Africa that they eat dirt to quell the hunger pains, or the soldiers in Iraq who literally get blown up just driving down the road trying to do their job.
She said it was rude to ask such a question.
Posted by: Michael at April 24, 2007 08:32 AM