In January, I posted Making the Ultimate Sacrifice to commemorate the second anniversary of our loss of four American heroes. Jon Bowling (a Martinsville police officer), Jesse Strong, Karl Linn and Chris Weaver were killed by insurgents when their convoy was ambushed in the Anbar province in Iraq. There is no doubt that these soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice but that day my heart and thoughts were with their mothers - the ones left behind to continue living out the sacrifice of a future shared with their sons. I was so incredibly humbled when I read the following comment:

You are right, mother’s make the greatest sacrifice. I fostered Karl’s interest in the technical, fed his curiosity. Malisa taught him kindness and gave him heart. What could be a greater sacrifice than giving your firstborn child, as perfect as he was?

Semper Fidelis,
Dick Linn
Karl’s dad

So humbled, in fact, that I couldn’t respond. I tried. I tried to reply in the comments and I tried to write a separate post. No matter what I wrote, I would delete it after several rewrites. My piddly words, no matter how I connected them, refused to convey how deeply grateful (see how insufficient it looks?) I am to the parents that gave life, nurtured and fostered the spirit and discipline necessary to fight on behalf of their country when called upon. Gave them, as Dick says, “heart.”

Another touching comment came from Cheryl:

I just finished watching “Ambush at the Great River of Secrets” and sat there in tears. I have a son, my only child Christopher, who is in Iraq now with the 82nd AIR Infantry Div. 2/325. This is his second tour. I finally have learned what the bible scripture “pray without ceasing” means.

My heart goes out to all the families who have sacrificed so much. And I do understand the bond between a mother and her son.

I have a memorial website that I started in 2005. I would be very honored to create a memorial for the familes of Jesse Strong, Christopher Weaver, Jonathan Bowling and Karl Linn. I do not charge families to do this and I send an 8 x 10 framed print of the memorial to each family.

I too am very proud of my son and I believe in what he is doing for his country. He also wants to be a military historian. It is always in my thoughts that one day he may need a memorial as well. My website is www.aherostribute.org.

My prayers are with each of you and I appreciate your blog.

Again - I find it so very difficult to find the right words to say “thank you” and to let the families know that regardless of what is aired or published or burned in effigy, THAT’S NOT US! Our hearts are with the troops fighting abroad and the families left to fight the battle here.

E-mails like this one:

Date: February 6, 2007 8:04:39 PM EST
To: badrose@mac.com
Subject: A Marine Dad thanks you for your blog comments

Hi,

I didn’t want to post this on your blog, but rather quietly thank you off line. My son is an Infantry Marine, just back from his second deployment to the Al Anbar province. I’ve gotten to know a lot of Marine moms and dads over the past 3+ years. The one friendship I cherish above the rest is the one I have with Jonathan’s dad, Darrell Bowling. I’ve gotten to know Darrell pretty well over the past year. When I think of Darrell, I think of Jonathan, and vice-versa. I had the opportunity to have a long conversation with Darrell on the second anniversary of his loss of Jonathan and we both agreed that CNN did a commendable job with the documentary.

Anyhow, I just wanted to thank you for writing what so many Marine Parents feel. I wrote a book last year which you can see on www.uparmor.org. I’m in the process of doing a complete re-write. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing the revised version sometime soon and I’ll shoot you off an e-copy. Thanks.

Semper Fi,

…remind me of the importance of letting our military families know every day that they are not alone, even if we don’t have the words to sufficiently express it, we’re here and we care and we want their sons home, too. But we want them home in victory.

This is weighing heavily upon me tonight because Grumpy directed me to BLACKFIVE who has a great post on the troop reaction to the Democrats:

“What’s worse, however, is the reaction of their parents. I’ve received a lot of email from parents who describe heart-breaking phone calls with their sons and daughters in Iraq. They are counseling these young Americans who are now questioning why they are fighting for a group of people that are duplicitous, spineless, and certainly not worthy of them. IMHO, if you want to talk about damaging morale, this could be the final straw.”

I hope Blackfive is wrong. The best inspiration for them that I have to offer comes from Vicki Strong, mother of Jesse, who died with Jon, Karl and Chris:

“You know, forty years from now, what will this turn out to be? Maybe Iraq will be a prosperous, free country. We’re just looking at the ‘now’ but I’m looking way ahead, years from now. I’m looking at the point when someday an Iraqi person will come up and shake my hand and say, thank you. Thank you that you gave your son. And I’ll say, “It was a privilege and I don’t regret it.”

Semper Fi.