The year 2006 couldnÂ’t have started worse for Al Jokisch.
Early morning on Dec. 29, a government vehicle parked in his driveway on Oak Island revealed his worst nightmare.
A day earlier, his son, Aaron Forbes, a combat engineer stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, died when a roadside bomb exploded near the Humvee he was driving in Baghdad. HeÂ’d been in the city only four days.
To date, 2,175 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003.
“The most gut-wrenching thing I had to come across was seeing the government vehicle in my driveway,” Jokisch said on New Year’s Eve. “It was just like, ‘Oh God, no.’ ”
His 24-year-old son – a father, a husband – was gone.
Forbes, who was assigned to Fort Hood’s 1st Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, had been deployed to Iraq on his son’s birthday – Dec. 2. It was his second deployment to Iraq.
Two weeks earlier, he had finalized the adoption of 5-year-old Alex – his wife Brittany’s son.
HeÂ’d bought a charcoal-colored, 2006 Ford Expedition that he couldnÂ’t stop gushing over.
Life was looking good.
That wasnÂ’t the case five years ago.
In 2001, ForbesÂ’ mother, Marjorie, died of cervical cancer when she was 43.
That summer, his oldest sister, 21-year-old Alecia Forbes, died suddenly of what was deemed natural causes.
It was a heartbreaking year for Forbes.
But the following year, life took another turn.
He met his wife when he answered an ad looking for a roommate on Hilton Head Island, S.C.
“It was like love at first sight,” Jokisch said.
Eager to find a steady job, he followed in the footsteps of both his parents by enlisting in the Army in March 2002 before the war started.
Not long after finishing boot camp, Forbes married his first love. Less than two weeks after he got married, he was deployed to Iraq for about 10 months, his father said.
But he kept in close contact with his father, calling five times a day every day of the week when he wasnÂ’t in the field.
“He’d say, ‘Hey dude. What you doing?’” his father recalled. “We talked about every kind of thing. Him adopting Alex. His marriage.”
Forbes lived on and off with his father on Oak Island for four years.
A social person, he towered over his fellow soldiers at 6 feet, 6 inches. “There wasn’t a person at Fort Hood that said anything bad about Aaron,” Jokisch said.
Though it was difficult to be away, Forbes told his father that the Iraqis were good people.
Still, it was difficult to cope with the reality of what his son was doing. “Like a parent, you want them to be safe,” he said. “I told him, ‘Aaron, you’re a tall guy. Bend over. Don’t be so tall. Don’t be the main target. We had to joke like that to keep from going nuts over it.”
Forbes is also survived by younger brother, Kenny, and his half brother, Joshua. Funeral arrangements are pending the return of ForbesÂ’ body.
Veronica Gonzalez: 343-2008
veronica.gonzalez@starnewsonline.com
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html
***THE MANSIONS OF THE LORD***
from the movie "We Were Soldiers"
To fallen soldiers let us sing
Where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
To the Mansions of the Lord
No more bleeding, no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
Just divine embrace, eternal light
In the Mansions of the Lord
Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard though the angels sleep
While through the ages safely keep
The Mansions of the Lord
Thank you Dubya!