Tech vs Iraq

Maybe I'm just being insensitive, maybe I'm just grieving for frends lost... but there is something I can't understand. Last week we lost 32 people in the shooting at VA Tech in a horrible act that brought international attention. Flags across the nation were lowered, the President spoke, newspapers ran and continued to run stories, bios on every person lost, we had to endure the asshole shooters tape played over and over on the news and radio. Yet 99.9% of the country forgot something. 

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04/23/07	Knoll, Garrett	Pending
04/23/07	Gaspers, Kevin	Pending
04/23/07	Avery, Jeffrey A.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	Harper, Marlon B.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	Slater, Michael J.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	Bushnell, William W.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	Tudor, Steven R.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	North, Christopher M.	DoD Confirmation
04/21/07	Bevel, Ray M.	DoD Confirmation
04/20/07	Bishop, Jeffery A.	DoD Confirmation
04/19/07	Moore, Dwayne L.	DoD Confirmation
04/18/07	Morales, Jason M.	DoD Confirmation
04/18/07	Oglesby, Wade J.	DoD Confirmation
04/18/07	Rojas, Michael M.	DoD Confirmation
04/17/07	Langenbrunner, Richard P.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	Blue, Shaun M.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	Delatorre, Jesse D.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	Scherry, Daniel R.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	Starcevich, Lucas V.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	Genevie, Aaron M.	DoD Confirmation
04/16/07	De Leon, Mario K.	DoD Confirmation
04/15/07	Walberg, Steven J.	DoD Confirmation
04/14/07	Schmit, Joshua A.	DoD Confirmation
04/14/07	Wallace, Brandon L.	DoD Confirmation
04/14/07	Santee, Daniel J.	DoD Confirmation
04/14/07	Basham, Robert J.	DoD Confirmation
04/14/07	Bishop, Ryan A.	DoD Confirmation
04/13/07	Bowman, Larry R.	DoD Confirmation
04/12/07	Putnam, Cody A.	DoD Confirmation
04/12/07	Borbonus, John G.	DoD Confirmation
04/12/07	Lindsey, James T.	DoD Confirmation
04/12/07	Beadles, Jason J.	DoD Confirmation
04/12/07	Newman, Gwilym J.	DoD Confirmation
04/11/07	Sevaaetasi, Raymond S.	DoD Confirmation
04/10/07	Bohrnsen, Kyle G.	DoD Confirmation
04/09/07	Holden, Brian Lee	DoD Confirmation
04/09/07	Solorio, Ismael	DoD Confirmation
04/09/07		DoD Confirmation
04/09/07	Spohn III,, Clifford A.	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Kennedy, Adam P.	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Williams, Jesse L.	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Simmons, David N.	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Brown, Harrison	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Singleton, Todd A.	DoD Confirmation
04/08/07	Neel, Phillip I.	DoD Confirmation
04/07/07	Grassbaugh, Jonathan D.	DoD Confirmation
04/07/07	Emolo, Ebe F.	DoD Confirmation
04/07/07	Hoover, Levi K.	DoD Confirmation
04/07/07	McCandless, Rodney L.	DoD Confirmation
04/07/07	Murphy-Sweet, Philip A.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	McSween, Joseph A.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Hall, Curtis R.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Billiter, Gregory J.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Cajimat, Jay S.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Schwedler, Joseph C.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Fuentes, Daniel A.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Rodriguez, Damian Lopez	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Dallam, Ryan S.	DoD Confirmation
04/06/07	Palermo Jr., Anthony	DoD Confirmation
04/05/07	Shaffer, Jason A.	DoD Confirmation
04/05/07	Cauthorn, Forrest D.	DoD Confirmation
04/04/07	Coon, James J.	DoD Confirmation
04/04/07	Burge, Jerry C.	DoD Confirmation
04/04/07	Cantrell IV, Joseph H.	DoD Confirmation
04/04/07	Gibson, Derek A.	DoD Confirmation
04/04/07	Freeman Jr., Walter	DoD Confirmation
04/03/07	Becker, Shane R.	DoD Confirmation
04/03/07	Figueroa, Gabriel J.	DoD Confirmation
04/02/07	Spivey, Curtis R.	DoD Confirmation
04/02/07	Olsen, Daniel R.	DoD Confirmation
04/02/07	King, Bradley D.	DoD Confirmation
04/02/07	Ritzberg, Brian E.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	Mejias, David A.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	Vick, Eric R.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	McDowell, Robert M.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	Bowling, William G.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	Marcial III, Miguel A.	DoD Confirmation
04/01/07	Arnette, Jason R.	DoD Confirmation

Thats over 70 Americans (and probably a couple thousand Iraqi's) that were killed this month alone. Where is their National headline? Where are the half mast flags for these American heros?

Here is the premise of the argument that I have heard. Soldiers go to Iraq knowing the risks, college kids don't expect to be shot in class. I'm going to call bullshit. First off, soldiers going to Iraq (and Afganistan, the forgotten part of the war) and don't expect to die there. You know it can happen, but you hope and pray that it wont happen to you or anyone that you love. But you can never prepare yourself for the fact that your friend, your brother or your child will be the one who gets hurt or killed. Its there, but you don't sit at home expecting it. Just like you know people die in car accidents every day, but every time someone you know gets in a car, you don't expect them to die in a car crash.

The truth of the matter is that these kids were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Its horrible, but none of them would have gone in that building if they had know that there was a gunman in there. Yet that is exactly what the military does for a living. They go into somewhere knowing that the other guy could be in there trying to kill them. Isn't that more deserving of national honors than people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Was what happened at VT horrible? Absolutely.

Riddle me this though? Why in the hell does Cho Seung Hui  , the complete fuckbag shooter, get more press coverage than Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith? Don't know who that is? 

 http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/smith/profile/index.html

What kind of world are we living in where we forget who the real hero's are? The firefighters and rescue personel who ran into the twin towers knowing that they might die there after the planes hit vs the people who were just unlucky enough to be there when it happened.

Pissed off rant about the war...

I was never "for" this war. The main reason for that is because it streached our military out too much. I could see that in 2002/2003 when the whole country was still foaming at the mouth to go in there. Sure, Saddam was an asshole. But killing 3000 Americans fighting a "war over there" so that we don't have to "fight them over here" is bullshit. It just shows how much our country has turned into a bunch of pussies. Because rich people are afraid to die here in a terrorist attack, they are willing to send other peoples kids over to die in some shithole so that they wont have to deal with the risks personally? What a cop out. Now we have guys doing 15 month tours in combat who have already been there 2 and 3 times in the last 5 years. 0.4% of our population giving all while the rest of us keep up more with the Anna Nicole baby than the 18-30 year olds getting killed every day so that we can enjoy our Escalades and American Idol.  

The worst part being that there is nothing to accomplish militarily in Iraq. As fast as you can kill the rock eating assholes off, more are ready to take their place. You cant have a war on an idea, or an offensive war on a country you already have completely taken over. You have to have a visable enemy to fight. We didn't fight the idea of facism in WWII, we fought Germany, Italy, and Japan. Countries we could beat. Terrorism is a tactic. This is like having like having a war on flanking. I'm a guy who has a high school education and 3 years in an infantry unit and I can see this, WTF is wrong with out leadership? Its appears that they eat retard sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.   

The worst part is that I hate the Democrats. I hate "anti-war" protestors. Yeah, I know its your right to protest, but WTF does some 19 year old asshole college student know about war, politics, the third world? Not a god damn thing. I don't want to have anything to do with any of them, but at this point on this issue, albeit for different reasons, I am put on their sides. Apparently this makes me "not support the troops" or "on the side of the terrorists" according to Sean Hannity and the rest of the chickenhawks who never served a day in the military but are chomping at the bit to invade every country that they think might someday impede on their lifestyle. Willing to sacrifice thousands of lives, cripple thousands of other peoples kids, and have thousands more with PTSD and other mental problems for the rest of their lives so that your faggot asses don't have to see people on fire and getting shot in this country like these guys and gals see in Iraq every fucking day.

My most sincere fuck you to you war mongering fucks who have never put your ass on the line.

There's my little rant for the morning. Good day all.  

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=spotsylvania,+va&daddr=vilseck,+germany&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.572881,59.238281&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=3&om=1

Psalm 43 (New International Version)

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Its weird that they can get this with only two questions... http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=6711512663497470889 8 - the Asserter Thanks for taking the test !

you chose AY - your Enneagram type is EIGHT (aka "The Challenger"). "I must be strong" Asserters are direct, self-reliant, self-confident, and protective. How to Get Along with Me Stand up for yourself... and me. Be confident, strong, and direct. Don't gossip about me or betray my trust. Be vulnerable and share your feelings. See and acknowledge my tender, vulnerable side. Give me space to be alone. Acknowledge the contributions I make, but don't flatter me. I often speak in an assertive way. Don't automatically assume it's a personal attack. When I scream, curse, and stomp around, try to remember that's just the way I am. What I Like About Being a Eight being independent and self-reliant being able to take charge and meet challenges head on being courageous, straightforward, and honest getting all the enjoyment I can out of life supporting, empowering, and protecting those close to me upholding just causes What's Hard About Being a Eight overwhelming people with my bluntness; scaring them away when I don't intend to being restless and impatient with others' incompetence sticking my neck out for people and receiving no appreciation for it never forgetting injuries or injustices putting too much pressure on myself getting high blood pressure when people don't obey the rules or when things don't go right Eights as Children Often are independent; have an inner strength and a fighting spirit are sometimes loners seize control so they won't be controlled fugure out others' weaknesses attack verbally or physically when provoked take charge in the family because they perceive themselves as the strongest, or grow up in difficult or abusive surroundings Eights as Parents are often loyal, caring, involved, and devoted are sometimes overprotective can be demanding, controlling, and rigid

.. End Article Title/Source/Date --->.. Start Article Content --->PORTLAND, Ore. - The echo of a 21-gun salute and bugler playing Taps seemingly marked the end of an era as a state and national treasure was laid to rest in Portland, Ore., March 2.

Retired Army Cpl. Howard V. Ramsey, Oregon's last living World War I veteran and the last known U.S. combat veteran of WWI, died in his sleep Feb. 22 at an assisted living center in southeast Portland. He was honored in a memorial service attended by nearly 200 people at Lincoln Memorial Park exactly one month before reaching his 109th birthday.

"This is a very historic occasion; we lay to rest today our nation's oldest combat veteran," said Pastor Stu Weber, who officiated over Ramsey's memorial service.

In an Associated Press report, Jim Benson of the Veterans Administration said there are now only seven WWI veterans on record with the VA, although it is possible there are unknown veterans who may still exist.

Of the seven known WWI veterans still living, none were shipped overseas, making Ramsey the last known combat veteran of "The Great War." Ramsey inherited the title two weeks before his passing, when Massachusetts veteran Antonio Pierro passed away on Feb. 8.

Ramsey's lifetime spanned three centuries and 19 presidents. He was born in Rico, Colo., on April 2, 1898, when the U.S. flag had just 45 stars and President McKinley was preparing to declare war with Spain.

Too young to be drafted, Ramsey tried to voluntarily enlist but was told he was too skinny by Army standards. After gorging on bananas and water to successfully meet weight standards, he was placed in the Army's transportation corps.

Ramsey sailed to France in September 1918 to join General John "BlackJack" Pershing's American Expeditionary Force. Ramsey drove cars, trucks and motorcycles for the Army and trained other Soldiers how to drive. He was often selected to drive officers to special engagements, one officer "gigging" him for having a dirty truck despite the constant rain and mud in France. He also drove ambulances, transported troops to the frontlines and delivered water to troops on the battlefields.

Ramsey once recalled his service in WWI saying, "We were under fire a lot at the front, and we really caught hell one time. I lost friends over there."

After the armistice, Ramsey spent several months recovering the remains of American Soldiers who had been hastily buried in the trenches and transported them to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the largest American cemetery in Europe.

"You'd better believe it was pretty awful work," Ramsey told Oregonian reporter Rick Bella in 2005. "It was tough, but you became hardened to it."

Nearly 90 years later, Ramsey was still haunted by regret for not breaking the rules and keeping a diary that fell from the pocket of one deceased American Soldier. Ramsey told family and friends, "I wanted to keep that diary so badly to send it to his mother, but it was against the rules to keep anything from off the bodies."

Veterans of many generations and wars, and military representatives attended Ramsey's memorial service to pay their respects, including Brig. Gen. Raymond C. Byrne Jr., commander of the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, and Jim Willis, state director of Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs.

"If we are going to end an era, I can think of no better way than to do it with a person who is a model representation of the kinds of Soldiers who served this country in WWI, and someone who would be an example to any combat Soldier serving up to, and including those who serve in Afghanistan and Iraq today. All (veterans) would be justifiably proud to have known Corporal Howard Ramsey," said Willis.

Retired Army Col. Don Holden, whose father was Ramsey's classmate at Washington High School, shared fond memories of Ramsey's sense of humor. He said farewell to his old friend by reading the epic WWI poem "Flander's Field," which Ramsey could recite from memory well into his late 90s.

(Spc. April L. Dustin writes for the Oregon National Guard Public Affairs Office.)

Same shit different decade...

Sandbag For A Machine Gun: Jack P. Smith on the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley and the Legacy of the Vietnam War

Jack P. Smith gave this speech on 8 November 2003, at the Ia Drang Survivors Banquet in Crystal City, Virginia

I have pancreatic cancer. If it is Agent Orange, it's not the first time this damned war has tried to kill me.

Let me tell you about the first time. In fact, the whole and true story of my journey home from Vietnam. But before I do, let me set the scene for you.

It is November 1965. The Ia Drang Valley. The nearest town, Pleiku, a remote Vietnamese province capital. And west of town, beyond the stilted long-huts of the Montagnards, flat scrub jungle cover the hills by the Cambodian border. A smugglers' haven, and now the infiltration route for the first North Vietnamese regulars to invade South Vietnam.

American regular infantry, the first sent to Vietnam as the war escalates, have come to this border country to hunt the People's Army of Vietnam. They are the men of the First Air Cav, the first Army infantry division to ride into war in helicopters. The leading unit is Lt. Col. Hal Moore's 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment. Driving their choppers into a landing zone designated X-ray, a few miles from the Cambodian border, on the 14th of November, 1965, they land on top of a North Vietnamese Army base. A ferocious battle ensues that lasts three whole days. Hal Moore's battalion several times comes within inches of being overrun. In the end, reinforced to brigade strength, the U.S. troops destroy the better part of a North Vietnamese division at X-ray. Seventy-nine Americans are killed, 121 wounded, a total of 200 U.S. casualties, the highest toll of the war till then...but there are roughly two thousand North Vietnamese casualties.

I came in on the last day of the battle. I remember the NVA bodies were piled so thick around the foxholes you could walk on them for 100 feet in some places. The American GIs were the same color as the dirt and all had that thousand-yard stare of those newly initiated to combat.

The next day, after a restless night, my battalion, the 2/7, walked away from X-ray toward another clearing called LZ Albany. Around lunchtime, we were jumped by a North Vietnamese formation. Like us, about 500-strong.

The fighting was hand-to-hand. I was lying so close to a North Vietnamese machine-gunner that I simply stuck out my rifle and blew off his head. It was, I think, the only time during the war that a U.S. battalion was ever overrun. The U.S. casualties for this fourth day of battle: 155 killed, 121 wounded. More dead than wounded. The North Vietnamese suffered a couple of hundred casualties.

The fight at LZ Albany was largely overlooked as an aberration- poor leadership, green troops. In this first encounter between their main force regulars, the two sides focused instead on X-ray. Interestingly, both drew the same conclusion: that each could win using the tactics of attrition.

The ferocity of the fighting during those four days was appalling. At one point in the awful afternoon at Albany, as my battalion was being cut to pieces, a small group of enemy came upon me, and thinking I had been killed (I was covered in other people's blood), proceeded to use me as a sandbag for their machine gun. I pretended to be dead. I remember the gunner had bony knees that pressed against my sides. He didn't discover I was alive because he was trembling more than I was. He was, like me, just a teenager.

The gunner began firing into the remnants of my company. My buddies began firing back with rifle grenades, M-79s, to those of you who know about them. I remember thinking, "Oh, my God. If I stand up, the North Vietnamese will kill me; and if I stay lying down, my buddies will get me." Before I went completely mad, a volley of grenades exploded on top of me, killing the enemy boy and injuring me.

It went on like this all day and much of the night. I was wounded twice and thought myself dead. My company suffered about 93 percent casualties--93 percent.

This sort of experience leaves scars. I had nightmares. For years afterwards I was sour on life, by turns angry, cynical, and alienated.

Then one day I woke up and saw the world as I believe it really is, a bright and warm place. I looked afresh at my scars and marveled, not at the frailty of human flesh, but at the indomitable strength of the human spirit. This is the miracle of life. Like other Vietnam veterans, I began to put the personal hurt behind me, and I started to examine the war itself and to make sense of it.

When I went back to Vietnam a few years ago, I met Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap, the man who engineered the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu and then commanded North Vietnamese forces in the war with South Vietnam and us. He conceded that because of the Ia Drang his plans to cut Vietnam in half and take the capital had been delayed ten years. But then, he chuckled, it didn't make a difference, did it?

We won every battle, but the North Vietnamese in the end took Saigon. What on earth had we been doing there? Was all that pain and suffering worth it, or was it just a terrible waste? This is why Vietnam veterans often have so much trouble letting go, what sets them apart from veterans of other wars.

Nothing is so precious to a nation as its youth. And so, to squander the lives of the young in a war that, depending on one's point of view, either should never have been fought or we were never prepared to win, seems crazy. Yet, that's exactly what happened in Vietnam. However justified the war seemed in 1964 and 1965, and, remember, almost all Americans then thought it was, it no longer seemed that way after Tet in 1968. And no matter what you may remember of the war, we never really fought it to win.

When I was wounded it caused a minor sensation at home. My father was Howard K. Smith, the anchorman and TV news commentator, who was then at the peak of his career. That the son of a famous person should get shot in Vietnam was, in 1965, news. When I returned to the United States after my tour in Vietnam, President Johnson, who was a friend of my dad's, invited me to a dinner party at the White House. I remember a tall, smiling man who thanked me for my service and
sacrifice. I liked him then; I still do today. Yet no one bears as much responsibility for the conduct of the war as he does.

In the Gulf War we took six months to put half a million troops into the war zone. In Vietnam, it took more than six years. We were too timid to carry the fight to the enemy until the end, and we tried, impossibly, to keep the war contained to South Vietnam.

The result was that our enemy, a small country waging total war, that is, using all its resources, saw a super power fighting a limited war and concluded that if it could just sustain the 10-to-1 casualties we were inflicting for a while, then we would tire and leave, and it would win. Of course, Ho Chi Minh was right. The war also changed character. The Sino-Soviet split made it seem less like a war of national liberation and more like a civil war - an internal squabble. After the Tet Offensive in 1968, we quit and began the longest and bloodiest retreat in U.S. history. Dean Rusk, then-Secretary of State, many years later ruefully told me, "They outlasted us."

The fact is, democracies don't fight inconclusive wars for remote goals in distant places for very long. Pham Van Dong, Ho's successor, said that.

Whether the war was right or whether it was wrong, it was fought in such a way it could never really have been brought to a conclusion. That now seems clear with time. What a waste. It's why so many veterans of Vietnam feel bitter.

Well, we finally did get our parades and we finally did build our memorial on the Mall in Washington. These helped. But so many veterans were still haunted by the war, and I was, too.

Fourteen years ago, I watched the Berlin Wall come down and, as an ABC News correspondent, I witnessed first hand the collapse of communism. I remember thinking, "My God, containment worked. We won the Cold War." And however meaningless Vietnam seemed at the time, it contributed to the fall of communism. Hardly justification for what we went through in Vietnam, but at least it was something.

Then ten years ago, an event changed me. An opportunity to go back to Vietnam. With ten other Ia Drang veterans, I traveled back to the jungle in the Central Highlands and for several days walked the battlefield. Did I find the answer to my question? No, I don't know if what we did in the war ultimately was worth it. But what I did find surprised me.

North Vietnam may have conquered the South, but it is losing the peace. A country that three decades ago had the fourth strongest army in the world has squandered its wealth on fighting its neighbors and is poor and bankrupt. You look at Vietnam today and you wonder why they fought the war. Many North Vietnamese wonder, too.

What struck me was the overwhelming peacefulness of the place, even in the clearing where I fought, LZ Albany. I broke down several times. I wanted to bring back some shell casings - some physical manifestation of the battle - to lay at the foot of The Wall here in Washington. But, do you know, search as I did, I could not find any. The forces of nature had simply erased it. And where once the grass had been slippery with blood, there were flowers blooming in that place of death. So I pressed some and brought them back. Flowers...that's all that I could find in that jungle clearing that once held terror and now held beauty.

What I discovered with time may seem obvious, but it had really escaped me all those years on my journey home from Vietnam: The war is over. It certainly is for Vietnam and the Vietnamese. As I said on a Nightline broadcast when I came back, "This land is at peace, and so should we be." For me, Vietnam has become a place again, not a war, and I have begun letting go.

I have discovered that wounds heal. That the friendship of old comrades breathes meaning into life. And that even the most disjointed events can begin to make sense with the passage of time.

This has allowed me, on evenings like this, to step forward and take pride in the service I gave my country. But never to forget what was, and will always be, the worst day of my life. The day I escaped death in the tall grass of the Ia Drang Valley. Thank you.

I don't even know where to start...

To say that Rob was a great guy would be an understatement. His effect on my life and personality will be with me the rest of my life. So will the effect of his death.

I met Rob in Spanish Class in 10th grade. We almost got into a fistfight in the middle of the class and the teacher almost shit herself. Then we were put on opposite ends of the room. A couple weeks later, he started doing some lines from a skit on 'The State', a show on late night MTV. I was really into the show, but no one I ever asked about it had ever heard of it. I started doing the other lines of the skit and that was it, best buds from there on out. At the end of the year Rob failed and I passed although I swear we got the same grades. We always had the suspicion that she failed one and passed the other so that no other teacher would have to deal with having the two of us in the same class again. We used to look up insults in the spanish/english dictionary and use them in class amongst just being general cut ups and making everyone laugh all the time. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

He hung out with Steve, who I had known since middle school, and Mark, Travers, and George who I knew from around and Battle of the Bands. That was the start of me as one of "the Boys."

Rob was the idea guy, the one who 99% of the time came up with all the plans for our great adventures to avoid the boredom of living in a then small town with nothing to do for kids under 21. Rob was the straightlaced one of the group. He had the full range of clothes from Structure. They were arranged by color in his closet, always ironed, and perfectly organized. He didn't smoke or drink.On the other hand, he was the biggest goof-ball I ever met. Anyone who ever met him for more than 5 minutes definately got some laughs from his various comedy routines. We used to roll around in his Blazer which he named 'Pepe' and had a great time doing nothing at all. I remember listening to "Freshman" by the Verve Pipe and him singing at full volume, although he had a horrible singing voice. lol.  

Rob started talking about getting a Jeep or a Scout. After alot of research and reading he figured that a CJ-5 would be the best way to go. Short wheelbase, strong dependable motor, and about the toughest thing a guy can drive. He was all about being the toughest guy around. Toughest way to smoke, toughest way to walk, toughest way to do any of a million mundane things that we all do every day. Back to the subject, he found a canary yellow CJ-5 and bought it. Then I got mine and we tore those things up. He always had a magazine, a new peice of hardwear, a new book about how to make his Jeep better or to do more offroad. He was a consumate profesional once he got into something, be it Jeeps, guns, or being a paratrooper.

I remember going to look at the black CJ that Brandon now drives when he found it in someones yard. He wanted it because it had the Dana 44 rear, limited slip, and the 258 motor. He also liked that it was an earlier generation Jeep that not many people had. He ended up getting that Jeep and selling the yellow one to Mark. I remember riding over to the airport and working on that black Jeep well into the night in the main hangar for hours on end. With baby steps, he got that thing back on its feet and in running condition. He loved that Jeep. The last real conversation we had, I gave him shit because I still had a Jeep and I told him that he had sold out and moved on to reliable trucks after getting me into Jeeps, which are all money pits that take alot of effort to keep on the road. He said that he was going to get another one someday and we had a good laugh.

He always talked about being a soldier, or a police officer. He used to have the ranger handbook that he read all the time in High School. He loved reading all the memoirs of soldiers who had fought in previous wars and done heroic things.

Me and Steve joined the Army in the fall of  '98, I remember talking to Rob about it and him being so interested in what basic was like, how I liked it and all the stories that everone who has served has to tell about the guys I was with, the BS we had to go through and how cool it was to shoot all the weapon systems (that he probably knew more about than I did at the time).

When I heard that he had signed up, it was no surprise to me. I always knew he would. It was hard to keep in touch with us both being in the Army, me in Germany, him at Ft. Bragg. Both of us being deployed or in the field, and our leave not lining up at the same time. Whenever we would talk on the phone though, it was like we had hung out the day before. His Mom told me a couple days ago that is how you can tell that you were real friends. He definately was one, it would be a year since we had talked and we could start in like it had been a day.

The last time he called me was in January. I didn't know he was home. I saw the phone number said "Rob Cell" and almost had a heart attack because I was sure that it was Jamie calling numbers from his phone to tell them that something had happened to him. I debated picking up the phone because I didn't want to have to hear. After what seemed like an eternity (it was probably 3 seconds) a picked up the phone and it was him back on leave. I told him he scared the shit out of me, to which he got a laugh, and asked him how he was, then told him that I was on my vanpool and asked if I could call him back in an hour and he said that would be great. I called him back about 6 times in the next couple days and never got through.

To tell you the truth, I didn't worry about him much afterward because he was one of those people that you think of as indestructable. Always a professional, a tough guy, well trained, a born leader and I'm sure a great NCO. It was just the kind of guy he was. I always assumed that he would be fine. He had been through the fire before and always been ok.

I got the call last Tuesday and I felt like someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart closed. I couldn't stop shaking and crying. I've never been so completely taken off guard in my life. You see the papers every day and I even knew some guys who have died in the war, but I never thought it could happen to Rob. He was just too good of a guy.

Going to see his Mom and Dad was probably the hardest thing that I have ever had to do. What do I say? What can I do? He loved both of them so much and they loved him equally. I also knew that if the shoe was on the other foot, he would be at my house without a doubt. After the initial few minutes, things got easier and we talked about the old days and told all kinds of old stories, some I had never heard, some that they hadn't. I think that our visit made them feel a small bit better knowing how much we all loved him and that they were not alone in this. That part of it made me feel a little better as well. 

Driving home I completely lost it, I was crying so hard. I could just see him saying "Stop being such a pussy, you can get through this" but most of the time I don't feel like I can. I know the funeral is going to be the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Harder than when a lot of family member have died, harder than when other friends have died. 

Reading the papers I found out that there were 5 other guys that died in the same incident and I thought of them. 5 other guys with parents, best friends, people who never got to say all the things they wanted to say. On a larger scale, 3000 or so other people with the same story. 

I don't want to get into the politics of the war but I can't help but think about it. Thinking of what a waste that this was. That Rob will never get kids to take to T-Ball with my kids. That my son will never know one of my best friends. That I will never be able to go up Handcock Road in our Jeeps together. All of the other "never will's" that in my head I thought would happen. I know in my head that that is just me being selfish. I tell you this though. I would put Saddam back in power to get my friend back. I wouldn't trade Rob for Osama Bin Laden. He was willing to put his life on the line for it, as have many others, but my selfishness won't let me feel the same way. I wouldn't trade a million Iraqi's for one Rob Stanley, thats for sure.

I am glad that the 82nd is coming up from Ft. Bragg to do the honor guard at his funeral. He would have liked that. He loved being a paratrooper. He was proud of what he was doing and he loved his unit and his fellow soldiers. He was loyal to them until the end. He was loyal to everyone until the end. I never met a greater man, and I would have said the same thing a month ago when he was still with us. I loved him as a friend, and as a human being. Carrying his casket is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done. I just can't fucking believe it.

I feel honored that I could call him my friend. I am glad I got all the times we spent together, and I am glad that he got to live out his dreams. Someday when my son asks me about the guy whos name is tattooed on my forearm, I will be able to tell him about the great person that I knew. That he paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and he defines the word hero. He was one of the greatest people that I have ever known and I don't think I will ever have a day that I don't think about him, from this day until the day we meet again.