Somewhere out there...

Contributed by Rtr Feilin

Taking a fast pace across the pantry to get myself a cup of hot tea and thinking quickly get back to desk ..

Here’s comes the live updates by CNN, again, :

“. . . xx soldiers been killed leaving xx casualties.. - Baghdad”.

Looking up at the screen, live recorded scene of soldiers executing their mission in a dead city foreign land. Corpse were clad with flag of America. Fighting for justice? Peace? But why take so long? I wonder.

Ergh, had I added a spoon of sugar?
…………………………………………

Days later:

On table, an upside-down magazine of what look like the monthly subscription of Astro . First thought came into my mind was another huge budget Hollywood movies with the profesionalism snapshots and cool dusky backdrop. Slightly over turned, it reads ‘any day I’m here could be the day I die’ with a sort of handwritten font as the theme. A special issue of Newsweek : Voices of the fallen, in a tag line above that coloured red.

Girl, This. Is. Real.

With a little tug of interest, I flipped to that page which I never believe that had my eye glued to it. There were moment where I am trying to get adjusted reality and sci-fiction while reading (no way was Newsweeks gonna write crap, right?) Reading journals of someone who knew they gonna die, but when, was really….. “something” . Person who came all way from their home, be it a fresh graduate, to an unknown land, to fight with being that are jihad-crazy, whom have a totally opossite perception value of live is also another…..“ something”, big. Every words, expression with commas, dot and exclamation mark written was scruntinized and registered that enough to bring one to imagine, however, that also only on surface. What unspoken was left untold and forever burried.

What came flash to my mind was anguished and over-reacted emotions from families and love ones when they uncovered the truth. What’s more for a single mother to break the news and explain the gone of their daddy to their child whom barely understand the whole truth, which is a tremendously devastating.

Below are journals that written by the respective soldiers that I was moved by, before they are gone. (choose to type it out instead of providing the link. Well, it can be argued the other way tho, :P)


MICHEAL G. MIHALAKIS

I don’t even recognise myself anymore. Completely shaved head, Army uniforms and zero fats. I try to remember who I used to be. Every soldiers is going through the same change. It doesn’t better who you are: prom queen, high school football star, scholar, idiot, or whatever. As soon as you get here, you become the copy of the person next to you. (pg.24,1st column)

. . . it is so hard to tell a straving 5 year old who is begging for food to go away. Finally I gave in. A sickly barefooted 6 year old approached the vehicles, touching his lips saying “please,please”. I told him to go away and he just looked up at me. It looked like he wasn’t going to make it much longer in the 133-degree weather. Again I shouted “ kief!!” (go-in Arabic). As we drove away, I threw an ice-cold bottle of water out of the window to him.Lucily no one saw me. (pg.25,1st column)

- Mihalakis died of injuries sustained when his Humvee overturned. He was 18.


JESSE A.GIVENS

We are heading into a bad place, I guess. We have a bunch of want-to-be GI Joes who say they cant wait to kill someone.Personally I don’t give a s—t if we kill someone or never fire a shot. I don’t want medals or to be a hero. I just want to come home and be a husband and daddy again. (pg.24,1st column)

- Givens was drowned on May-1. “Bean” was born 4 weeks later.


KENNETH M.BALLARD

There are some times here that you are able to stop and look around and find a moment of peace. We were crossing the Tigris River at night under a full moon. The light breeze floated through the trees. You think to yourself how nice this would be with someone special, then flares light up the sky and you see tracer fire off in the distance and the cold slap of reality sets in that ou are in the middle of a war zone. (pg.25,2nd column)

- Ballard died when a passing tree branch triggered the unmanned machine gun on his tank.


PATRICK TAINSH

After 9 hours in the heat with 80 pounds on your back, you don’t want to do much except sleep when you get back.People out here are SOMETHING ELSE. They just don’t care that other people trying to help them. I guess that’s the face of war, and yes, it’s still a war. Don’t believe everthing you see on TV.(pg.26,2nd column)


KANE M. FUNKE

Hi mom, sorry it’s been so long since I’ve last called. I’m fine, but I got story to tell you. . . . . . . I usually sit inside behind the driver but they wanted me up in the turrent on the gun today. So, I’m the only one exposed to the outside. One our way back to go to Bronze, a blast hit us, knocked me out and slammed me agaist the gun, and they said I fell lifelessly down into the hummer. They shook me and turned me all over looking for blood but there was none. “FUNKE get back on the gun, damn it! Get back on the gun.” I got up and got back on the gun. I was ok. Your boy’s alive mom. (pg.32,1st column)

- Funke was killed in action about 2 weeks before he was scheduled to leave Iraq.


May those earn my salute, rest in peace.. Widows, single-parent child, parents who’s love ones that involved, may many cherish moment lies ahead and so does for the next generation.

Sources are extract from hardcopy: Newsweek. April 2, 2007. Voices of the fallen. Anyday I’m here could be the day I die. The Iraq War in The Words of American’s Dead. Visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17798269/site/newsweek/ for more informations.