So Im sure some of you follow the MOB board. There has been some debate ( putting it mildly) about decorating for Christmas before Remembrance Day. This one offends my 17 and 18 old daughters. Well, me too, but they have more right to be pissed. I married a soldier. A soldier signs a contract stating he will do his/her job until it is finished or their corps is getting cold. Cops and firemen are allowed to/ discouraged from situations where the odds are highly likely they will die. Soldiers never have that choice. Im going to tell you a little about the man who was once my husband. The man I buried, cleared the mangled corpses of 179 children so their mothers could have the peace of being able to bury their dead children. He cleared land mines out of school yards and church yards so people could have the dignity of burying their dead properly. He cleared booby trapped homes, so that Children could sleep warm. He came home 30lbs lighter from giving his rations to starving children. He was shot at regularly, watched his friend blown to bits in the same minefield as him, and went out the next day and cleared a school. That was just one tour in Bosnia. He did 3 altogether. He stood guard, at a hospital, as one ethnic group tried to come and kill everyone inside, because they were a different one. He came home a stranger. He couldnt sleep because his dreams were filled with the mangled corpses of women and children. One of his worst night mares was reliving having to clear the body of a pregnant mother whose baby was cut out of her while she was alive and then the skull was crushed in front of her. They then left her to bleed to death. He had to de-activate the mine. So that her family could burry her. Because of apathy, and lack of treatment for vets, he took a ride down a country road--- and blew his brains out. No he wasnt conscripted. He believed that all individuals deserved to be safe, and signed a contract saying he would protect the weak. Sadly his story isnt unique. There are many soldiers who have done as much. His children are FATHERLESS. They ask me time to time if I think he would be proud of them. It has taken years for them to start to accept that the daemons were stronger. To make them understand even a bit that he wasnt leaving them he was leaving the unbearable pain. Maybe if more of you watched the light leave the eyes of the man you adored, watched his soul chewed bit by bit, and the festering wound that never healed; and seen the confusion, anxiety and fear on your childrens faces. My kids have given a parent for their country. I think that gives them the right to ask folks to get by with 7 weeks for Christmas celebration ( 12 days of Christmas ends Jan 6).
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 06:00:58 +0000
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