Posted on 07/05/2007 1:12:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Poetry and lore speak of a mother’s grief, a mother’s tears for a deceased child. So perhaps the spotlight after her soldier-son’s death in 2004 was bound to be captured by Cindy Sheehan.
For Pat Sheehan, the very private role of simply continuing to be Casey’s father has been enough - until recently, that is. In a blip of publicity Cindy Sheehan bowed out of her diminishing limelight, announcing that she would stop her activism against the Iraq war. In doing so, she declared that Casey Sheehan “did indeed die for nothing.”
That statement ended Pat Sheehan’s silence.
He called me after reading a column in which I disputed his ex-wife’s assertion. Yes, he told me, Casey Sheehan’s death mattered. We continued talking and e-mailing, and he made me realize what should have been so obvious - that a soldier's life is what is significant, not merely his death, or the activism it might inspire.
One problematic aspect of Cindy Sheehan’s celebrity has been that her deceased son got lost in the news coverage. Nobody knows much about how Casey Sheehan lived or how he died.
Pat Sheehan is pained that people know so little about the religious devotion of his son. Casey Sheehan so loved his Catholic faith that he considered the priesthood, before realizing how much he wanted to be a father himself. As a child, he would pull a nightstand from against the wall, cover it with a blanket and “play” mass, enlisting his sister to be a nun.
As a teen, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. Later he would quip that the military was “kind of like Boy Scouts, but with guns.” Casey Sheehan signed up before the Sept. 11 attacks. His service had nothing to do with revenge, his father says.
Rather, it was a way to practice his faith. Casey Sheehan wanted to be a chaplain’s assistant. Faced with a wait to become one, he chose to be a wheel mechanic instead. As a soldier, he was always the first to greet a visiting priest. If no priest came to say mass, he would lead a prayer.
Pat Sheehan has only recently learned the details of his son’s death from Martha Raddatz, author of “The Long Road Home,” a book about the Sadr City uprising.
Sadr City, Iraq. April 4, 2004. A platoon of soldiers were ambushed by sniper fire, trapped in an alley when their Humvees broke down. Casey Sheehan was among the men who volunteered for the rescue of the dead. Actually he pulled rank, taking the place of a lowlier private. The convoy was fighting its way through more sniper fire when a high velocity bullet pierced his Kevlar helmet, then ricocheted against his head. He was put on a helicopter, doctors desperately tried to save his life. A rosary was in his pocket.
Casey Sheehan was one of eight soldiers who died that day.
“He was an adult, making his own decisions when he volunteered that day,” Pat Sheehan told me. “And he would do it again. Nothing can tarnish that.What he did matters.”
Grief experts say that when a parent dies, a part of a person’s past is taken. When a person loses a sibling, a part of their present is lost. But when a child dies, the future is stolen. The future, things yet unseen, maybe even unfathomed. That would make moving forward in life feel a bit like stepping into a vacant space. Pat Sheehan has been trying to live in that place.
After his son’s death, he wondered why he never became angry. But talk with him long enough, and you’ll understand that outbursts are simply not his way. His children used to hear him sigh heavily.
Pat Sheehan disagrees with his ex-wife’s tactics, but he does not wish to be pitted against her. Philosophically, they are close on their views about the war. “But I would rather that Casey be viewed with dignity,” he told me.
He says he misses being married, although he initiated the divorce proceedings that ended their marriage of nearly three decades. Cindy Sheehan is not, he insists, the ogre of a mother that critics portray her to be. “I wish her no ill will, whatsoever,” he said.
In an e-mail, Pat Sheehan wrote: “I haven’t quite found my voice yet as Casey’s father, but make no mistake, I feel much of the same pain and sense of loss that his mother does. I have chosen to deal with it in my own way. For all of my children, Casey, Carly, Andy and Jane, I am attempting to move forward with a little grace and dignity. They deserve nothing less.”
Pat Sheehan sounds like a class act. God bless his son for his sacrifice.
Cindy Sheehan has already entered the spotlight again to fume about the commutation for Scooter Libby.
Some speculate that she really was ducking the media for a month while a scandal over that Texas property blew over.
No man dies in vain who dies voluntarily in place of another...........
Maybe he can bring back the dignity of his sons’ death, God knows his ‘mother’ has drowned it in her rhetoric.
Class.
What a good father and man. One that focuses on the real issue and that is his son. Not like the Mother who used the death of her so to gain whatever celebrity and possibly money she could. Yes, she is most likely grieving; but to allow the left like Soros to use her and her son’s tragic death is scum.
Sounds like this might be someone who could intercede for his loony mom. Or any of us. We'll thank God for sending us such men as our examples.
I am also a 1st Cavalry Division veteran (see profile) and still belong to the 1st Cav association. First team!
bookmark
It is tragic that the left’s manipulation of Cindy Sheehan has obscured the heroism of Casey and his father.
mark
Pat Sheehan is a class act. His ex is a very sick woman who was exploited by the moonbat peaceniks for their nefarious ends.
God Bless this wonderful man.
This guy sounds like a man of dignity. Perhaps having a decent father makes up some for having so worthless a mother.
America’s finest
Leo Flood aka leofl graciously gave us freepers and friends a tour of Fort Hood this April, and we got to see this monument, but I didn’t notice that particular name on the wall. Interesting.
It’s there. My son actually pointed the names out.
That would be, “greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Colonel, USAFR
Catholic ping
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Good Read
Bump.
This is one of those “ I am glad that I read it” posts.
.
BUMP !!!
Thanks for posting this.
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God bless Casey.
bttt
It’s hard to imagine a man of such grace being married to such a shreaker.
It’s also hard to imagine such a patient man initiating a divorce. (Makes ME wonder why.)
Thread of the day! Good one, and thankyou.
(my screen now suddenly went all blurry. Just D*m’n!)
God bless you, Casey. You will be remembered long after your mother is forgotten.
“Perhaps having a decent father makes up some for having so worthless a mother.”
Please tell us what kind of mother she was to her son (alive, infant to young adult), as you apparently have information that she was worthless, despite the information about said son contained in this article.
I know it’s your sig... but “dignity and honor” followed by DW is kinda... humorous.
God Bless you Pat, God Rest you Casey. Carry on, soldier!
Mama Moonbat clearly misses the most significant part of her sons death and sacrifice. That being that he did sacrifice for his fellow man.
Pat Sheehan sees the heroics his son committed that day, his mother uses it to further an agenda that disgraces his sacrifice.
It is people like Casey Sheehan that made this country as great as it is, not ones like his mother.
Some day, when this life is over, Cindy Sheehan will have to look her heroic son in the eye. On that day, I will pity her more than I pity her now.
Amen to that.
Red...
“No man dies in vain who dies voluntarily in place of another”
Since Casey Sheehan was a Catholic, how appropriate and profound your statement is... I remember Saint Father Maximilian Kolbe, a Catholic priest imprisoned by the Germans at Auschwitz during WWII. Father Kolbe volunteered to exchange places with a condemned prisoner, so that the spared man might return home to his wife and children.
I have a serious question about the conduct of Cindy Sheehan:
I received an e-mail, a few months ago, that accused this mother of abandoning her son, Casey—surrendering parental rights—when he was age seven. This e-mail asserted that the mother had no further contact with the boy.
The text went further, stating that Cindy Sheehan was going through a second divorce and repeating the same mistake of giving up a second son from this second marriage.
I would like to see valid evidence that supports or refutes the veracity of these accusations. If they are trustworthy, than why have the media not revealed them? If they are false, then this is a calumny, and I do not want to be guilty in its association.
I appreciate any insight into this matter.
Thank you
RTO
As much as I dislike Cindy Sheehan, I can only assume that she is consumed by anger and grief. (although I really do question her sanity) This email floating around the internet is untrue. Except the part about Casey Sheehan’s unmarked grave. Sad, but I guess that’s a personal choice.
Here’s a link: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/cindy_sheehan.htm
and another:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sheehan.asp
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