Sadness...

I just reconnected on Thanksgiving with an old friend (one of my best friends, really) who I haven't spoken to in about six years, having lost contact with him when I PCS'd from Germany in '05.  That part was great.

But during the getting "caught up" about other friends from back in the day, he says to me, "You heard about Jim, right?"  I hadn't.  He went on to inform me that Jim (LTC James Wiley) lost his life in Afghanistan in September of '08 due to a non combat related injury. 

Jim was one of the nicest people I've met.  Caring, honest, genuine, helpful; all the things good you'd like people to have, he had in spades.  If you were one of his Soldiers, even in a roundabout way, you knew that he had your back, no matter what.  He was good, and will be missed.

He left behind a wonderful wife and three great kids.

Please raise a glass in honor of this Fallen Soldier. 

Mamoru

Thanks for the suggestion of getting in touch with his widow to send my condolences. 

Moontan13, I'm truly sorry to hear of your loss.  The voids of loss seem neverending at times. 

HonestBlues, glad to hear your son's made it back safely.  Hopetully, there won't be any more tours for him there. 

I've always felt that politicians, when making a decision to send in the troops for any reason, had to make that vote while realizing that one of their loved ones, be it wife/husband, son/daughter or grandchild would also deploy to the war zone.  And if one of their loved ones couldn't deploy, for whatever reason, then they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

If congress decided to raise a $5.00 tax on each pack of cigarettes sold to help cut into the deficit, I'd say, "Sounds great.  Go for it."  Yep, I'm a non-smoker.  But, if they decided to raise that same $5.00 tax on a gallon of gas, then the response might be, "Well, let's not get hasty with these things.  Let's look for alternatives."

For anyone reading this thread who has loved ones over there, I sincerely hope for their safe return.