TO THE CALM MOTHER EARTHS WAITING BREST
DUTY DONE LIKE THE SUN GOING WEST
Posted on 07/17/2009 9:38:05 PM PDT by MplsSteve
A missile strike in Iraq Thursday killed three Minnesota soldiers, all members of the National Guard's 34th Red Bull Infantry Division, family and friends said Friday.
One of those killed near Basra was Carlos Wilcox, 27, of Cottage Grove, whose mother said her son asked her to mail him books so he could study for a medical school entrance exam when he got home. "He knew that God had called him to be a soldier and a doctor," said Charlene Wilcox.
Dan Drevnick, 22, a graduate of Woodbury High School, was also killed in the attack. The third soldier, James Wertish, 20, was from Olivia.
"Three Multi-National Division-South Soldiers were killed when Contingency Operating Base Basra was attacked by indirect fire," the U.S. military said, referring to a mortar or rocket attack. The attack happened around 9:15 p.m. on Thursday.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
May God watch over these soldiers and grant their families peace in the days and months ahead.
Comments or opinions - anyone?
Feel so badly for the loss of those three fine men. May their families find comfort.
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They were doing the hard work.
Rest in peace, brothers.
RIP...Bless them all.
This is a ignorant question but here goes how long and under what authority has the national guard been sent into foreign wars? I had always thought that the national guard was a stateside reserve for each state of the union, to be called up for state emergencies.
You said it best and its worth repeating "May God watch over these soldiers and grant their families peace in the days and months ahead."
Let’s see what Al Franken is made of.
Again the nightly news failed to mention this. And gone are the nightly death counts, they were so eager to give when Bush was in office.
Better men than Minnesota has in Congress, esp. the Senate.
They died with honor, fighting for their country. More honor than most politicians will ever have collectively.
Father of a 3/20/03 OIF soldier - “First Forward”
VietNam was unusual is the dearth of National Guard troops used. It’s one reason things turned out as they did. National Guard or state units have historically been used in war. Korea, World War II (some of the first troops to see combat), World War I (about 40% of the troops to serve overseas), Spanish American War...
http://www.ng.mil/About/default.aspx
The idea of a large standing army was a cold war development. Use of citizen soldiers is more in keeping with the founding fathers’ vision.
Sadness to my heart and tears to my eyes, and heartfelt prayers for the families and friends of these young men.
God bless all our military people and their families.
I just finished the Casualty Notification class yesterday. It was a very emotional week. We heard from previous notification officers and survivors. I pray that I never have to do the job but I feel more comfortable about my next deployment because I know more about how well and how much the army will take care of my family in the event that I am killed.
We had special forces guys in the class and even they cried at some of it.
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