Friday, February 02, 2007

Be One of the 1%


This is old news now since it happened more than a week ago but the Blackhawk helicopter crash that occurred on January 20th where twelve servicemembers were killed really affected me.

If you read here you know I'm married to a USAF physician who is a CCAT team(Critical Care Air Transport) member. One of the people that died was Colonel Brian Allgood an orthopedic surgeon. Certainly that Dr. Allgood was in the medical corp hits close to home, but the awful irony of the highest ranking death to date being someone there to impart healing stops me cold. Equally upsetting was the death of Command Sergeant Marilyn Gabbard, the first woman promoted to the rank of Command Sergeant Major in the history of the Army. My emotional reaction is manifold, Cmd.Sgt.Maj.Gabbard being a military woman like myself, is one dimension and the loss of a physician, like my husband another. The other ten losses are no less tragic and my heart goes out to the family and friends of all who were lost.

I do not agree with this occupation. Three quarters of the American public concur that the US needs to leave Iraq. Two thirds of active duty military also want out but do not have a choice, they just continue to do their jobs. The highest ranking officer, 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused a second trip to Iraq, is now on trial. The people that serve need your help.

I cannot entreat anyone to have a personal stake in the loss of life that is now and will continue to mount as this illegal war/occupation continues, but look at the faces of the nearly 3,100 lost your government has shoved down the memory hole and withheld from public view. The lives the media scantly covered and George Bush refused to let you see return home. Then replace the face of someone whose died with the face of a loved one. Imagine yourself as part of the one percent and then contact your Senator.

1 comment:

MarcLord said...

Allgood was chief surgeon for all Iraq. There were two colonels, one lieutenant colonel, a major, a captain, a command master sergeant, and two regimental first sergeants on that flight.

There is speculation about an intelligence breach through the people KBR hires at the FOBs. It would be pretty easily penetrated, since everything gets so dusty in Iraq it requires constant sweeping. Either way it was very careless to put so much rank on one flight.