Posted on 01/01/2007 4:24:31 PM PST by jern
He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital.
“Follow your heart,” Charles M. King wrote in a 200-page journal for his son, Jordan, whom he first held this fall just weeks before he died in Iraq.
The United States has reached another grim milestone in the war in Iraq: 3,000 military deaths.
The Times’s Dana Canedy, whose fiancé was killed in Iraq, is taking questions from readers. Her responses will be posted later this week.
One of the drawings First Sgt. Charles Monroe King left for his son in a journal.
Then he began to write what would become a 200-page journal for our son, in case he did not make it back from the desert in Iraq.
For months before my fiancé, First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, kissed my swollen stomach and said goodbye, he had been preparing for the beginning of the life we had created and for the end of his own.
He boarded a plane in December 2005 with two missions, really — to lead his young soldiers in combat and to prepare our boy for a life without him.
The journal will have to speak for Charles now. He was killed Oct. 14 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his armored vehicle in Baghdad. Charles, 48, had been assigned to the Army’s First Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division, based in Fort Hood, Tex. He was a month from completing his tour of duty.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Conflicted? I assume the widow of a man such as this is a person of remarkable strength of character and a discerning understanding of things important.
I assume that she is one of those people who makes the world better-every day.
The little we know about her husband makes it clear that he was among our best. It is rare for men such as he to join their lives to a woman he doesn't look up to. If a guy like this respects her, who are you to comment?
One of your initial assumptions is incorrect already. She is not the widow of Sgt. King - she was his fiancee, not his wife. Unfortunately for her, that means her son will be eligible for survivior's benefits, but she will not.
I stand corrected. i still assume she is a person of character, but i am dismayed that she would be in such a position. It reflects a lack of wisdom.
These links go to a letter he sent to me after I left the desert at the end of the war and it speaks very clearly about his dedication and character.
This war, like the last one is far too personal...he, like so many others was a good man.
DESERT STORM RECOLLECTIONS: Letter from SGT King
DESERT STORM RECOLLECTIONS: Waiting for the Ground War 4/32 ARMOR
LOL, if you are going to try to rip me at least get your facts straight.
She's an editor at that rag. Their editorial policy speaks for itself. If you can't see the irony and the conflict in this situation that's your problem.
LBT
-=-=-
ping
BTTT
call me old-fashioned, but why can't these guys marry their pregnant girlfriends/fiancees before going off to a war zone ? I rally don't CARE that in this case, the mother can afford to raise the baby on her own income .. I think men owe it to their children to legitimize them. And women who don't insist on that are, imo, selfish fools.
I could care LESS about the mother, but it's really not fair to kids not to legitimize them .. even if this particular child has the advantage of being brought up in NYC where such things don't matter so much. We've all been Murphy Brown'd, so it's ok.
What a beautiful tribute; may his son be his legacy, and his Fiance count herself blessed that she knew this man. May God bless Dana Canedy, and heal her broken heart.
The world is a better place because First Sgt. Charles Monroe King, and his son will carry his blessing forward. God is good, that we have such men as these still walking the earth among us.
I found it hard to contain my tears reading the story of this remarkable man, one of many willing to step to the plate for all of us. How wonderful he has the foresight to leave this diary for his son. Looking at his drawing he was an excellent artist and I believe he intuitively knew what was coming.
I think a lot of us "see it." But not necessary, at this time, on this thread, to make that point more than once.
She was married? Did her baby's father know?
Katherine & Van
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