thedrifter
05-08-06, 10:03 AM
Our Own: Marine's visit is a reminder of forgotten troops
By John Railey
JOURNAL COULMNIST
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The Marine was home for a few days. He's a good guy in his early 20s, tall and tough with a gung-ho grin. We'd all watched him grow up. We worried about him as we heard about his deployments, first to Afghanistan, then to Iraq. We flinched every time we heard bad news on the TV or radio about Marines.
He did get injured several weeks ago, just as he was finishing his Iraq deployment. Nothing too serious, thank God, but serious just the same. A flare went off in his flak jacket, burning his back. He had to spend a few days in a hospital. And a couple of weeks ago, he got a visit home to the little town in Virginia where he grew up.
It's my hometown, too. I'd kept up with the Marine, Lance Cpl. Taylor Flowers, through his parents, whom I grew up with. I know how worried sick they've been about their oldest boy. So I was glad to be home last weekend when Taylor was.
Soldiers and sailors and Marines pass in and out of our lives. But, with the exception of their family and close friends, most of us forget them too easily in the midst of this long war that doesn't require any sacrifice from us civilians. Regardless of how we feel about the war, we don't think enough about the troops and all they're sacrificing.
Many warriors, if they're anything like Taylor, aren't going to remind us.
But from others, I do know that Taylor missed the funeral of his grandfather, who was a Marine in World War II. His superiors would have let Taylor come, but he chose to stay with his fellow Marines in Afghanistan. Last fall, he was in Iraq and missed the wedding of a good buddy, one of my nephews. And I'm sure there are a ton of other events he's missed.
So everybody was real glad to see the boy last weekend. They did what small towns do best for their troops: They blanketed him with love. There was a keg party in his honor at the hunt club Saturday, and a special recognition of him in church the next day. There was double cause for celebration: Taylor and his girlfriend had just announced their engagement.
I hope Taylor forgot about the desert, if only for a little bit. I hope his parents got some sleep.
He'll be heading back to Camp Lejeune soon. We're hoping that he'll get a stateside assignment, that after deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, the war is over for him.
You can't help thinking about one of the oldest cliches of war, that it's such a crap shoot. The time when Taylor was taken out of action after being burned by that flare might well have been the time when he'd been injured far worse, or even killed.
Too many other troops won't ever come home - or they'll come home with mental and physical injuries that will plague them for years. And now, the threat of battle with Iran is looming.
The best you can do is pray for peace and raise a toast to those who do make it home, if only for a visit.
Good luck, Taylor.
• John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com
Ellie
By John Railey
JOURNAL COULMNIST
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The Marine was home for a few days. He's a good guy in his early 20s, tall and tough with a gung-ho grin. We'd all watched him grow up. We worried about him as we heard about his deployments, first to Afghanistan, then to Iraq. We flinched every time we heard bad news on the TV or radio about Marines.
He did get injured several weeks ago, just as he was finishing his Iraq deployment. Nothing too serious, thank God, but serious just the same. A flare went off in his flak jacket, burning his back. He had to spend a few days in a hospital. And a couple of weeks ago, he got a visit home to the little town in Virginia where he grew up.
It's my hometown, too. I'd kept up with the Marine, Lance Cpl. Taylor Flowers, through his parents, whom I grew up with. I know how worried sick they've been about their oldest boy. So I was glad to be home last weekend when Taylor was.
Soldiers and sailors and Marines pass in and out of our lives. But, with the exception of their family and close friends, most of us forget them too easily in the midst of this long war that doesn't require any sacrifice from us civilians. Regardless of how we feel about the war, we don't think enough about the troops and all they're sacrificing.
Many warriors, if they're anything like Taylor, aren't going to remind us.
But from others, I do know that Taylor missed the funeral of his grandfather, who was a Marine in World War II. His superiors would have let Taylor come, but he chose to stay with his fellow Marines in Afghanistan. Last fall, he was in Iraq and missed the wedding of a good buddy, one of my nephews. And I'm sure there are a ton of other events he's missed.
So everybody was real glad to see the boy last weekend. They did what small towns do best for their troops: They blanketed him with love. There was a keg party in his honor at the hunt club Saturday, and a special recognition of him in church the next day. There was double cause for celebration: Taylor and his girlfriend had just announced their engagement.
I hope Taylor forgot about the desert, if only for a little bit. I hope his parents got some sleep.
He'll be heading back to Camp Lejeune soon. We're hoping that he'll get a stateside assignment, that after deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, the war is over for him.
You can't help thinking about one of the oldest cliches of war, that it's such a crap shoot. The time when Taylor was taken out of action after being burned by that flare might well have been the time when he'd been injured far worse, or even killed.
Too many other troops won't ever come home - or they'll come home with mental and physical injuries that will plague them for years. And now, the threat of battle with Iran is looming.
The best you can do is pray for peace and raise a toast to those who do make it home, if only for a visit.
Good luck, Taylor.
• John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com
Ellie