Retired National Guard general among train victims

AP ^ | June 23, 2009 | NA

[buccaneer81]

Retired National Guard general among train victims

Interactives/Galleries Washington Commuter Train Crash

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The victims of the Metro train collision in Washington included the recently retired commanding general of the D.C. National Guard and his wife; two working moms; a retired teacher who was working as a substitute, and a woman who worked with nurses around the world.

Here is what family members, co-workers and others had to say about them:

[buccaneer81]

That sucks. He survives combat to die like this.

[El Gato]

That sucks. He survives combat to die like this.

It's not clear, from this story, that he was in combat. Although it's likely he was for Desert Shield/Storm. He might have even been during the early part of Iraqi or Enduring Freedom.

He was a pilot, an Air Guardsman.

But...

I work on an Army post, the sign you see going out the gate, leading from the airfield to the main part of the post, says something to the effect "You survived the war, now survive the highways". The sign updates everyday with how many days since the last fatal road accident affecting a member of the post community. Up until a year or a bit more ago, it rarely got much above 30 days. I haven't been out that gate this week, but last week it was up to 210 days. They credit that to new driving safety training, especially for motorcyclists. In order to operate a motorcycle on post, you must take the training, be ye a soldier, an airman, a dependent, a civil servant or a slimy contractor.

IOW, Shiite Happens, and the public roads are almost as dangerous as the war zones.