Honoring Home-Front Heroes Plus Those On The Battle Line

IBD Editorials ^ | May 25, 2012 | J. ROBERT DUBOIS

[Kaslin]

In any discussion about war being "hell" it is common — and proper — to focus on the difficult conditions of our deployed war fighters. Long days grind on relentlessly in foreign lands, often with inadequate resources. They face attacks from determined enemies and long for home while months blur into years.

As a retired Navy SEAL, I know well the sacrifices made by our military men and women. In fact, during the decade and a half following elopement with the love of my life, I would find myself away from home on assignments for a total of eight years — more than half the marriage — by our 15th anniversary.

At the end of my Navy career in 2006, our commander issued awards for service to Cindy and each of the kids, right alongside me. We all serve, and we all pay a price. Along the way we had lost holidays, birthdays and many other special times together. To gently redirect a line by Milton, "They also serve who only stand and wait."

Memorial Day is ordinarily an opportunity for Americans to honor those who have died during military service; this Memorial Day, I want to open the aperture and explore more thoroughly the total cost of war.

Don't mistake this as a distraction from our responsibility to honor the fallen. My personal experience of loss is indelibly marked by the events surrounding Operation Red Wings in June 2005, when several of my Teammates died in Afghanistan.

A four-man special reconnaissance squad was surrounded by Taliban forces and wiped out except for my friend, Marcus Luttrell. He captures the scene in the aptly titled "Lone Survivor." Concurrently, a rescue helicopter was downed and all 16 aboard, including eight more of our SEAL brothers, were killed.

[Jumpmaster]

PC rules of engagement are an insult to our troops!

[LibsRJerks]

We’ve known many who have died in service here over the past 10 years. One that stands out was a friend of ours. He left a family of a wife and 5 children behind, kids ranging in ages from 26 or so to 5.

I don’t know how one recovers from that. I don’t know how his wife is surviving. I just pity her as her life will never been the same that it could have been.