thedrifter
01-11-09, 08:02 AM
Our debt to men like Jessie Cassada can’t be measured
Jessie Adam Cassada was in middle school when events in 2001 set in motion the headline that appeared last week: “Marine from Hendersonville dies in Afghanistan.’’
Cassada, a 2007 East Henderson High School graduate, died Tuesday supporting combat operations in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
He was 19.
WNC’s losses
His passing brings to more than a dozen the number of WNC service personnel who have died in the Iraq/Afghanistan theatre since 2001.
It’s hard to fathom that eight years have been shed from the calendar since the beginning of the conflict in Afghanistan.
All indications are that a renewed military and diplomatic focus are in the offing there. It’s a focus that is plainly needed.
Last year was the bloodiest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with 151 deaths. Taliban fighters have shown signs of resurgence, such as the raid on a prison in Kandahar June 13 that freed 400 Taliban fighters. The rugged areas along the Pakistan border have been a haven for such fighters, and the U.S. has never invested the kind of resources into Afghanistan that were brought to bear on Iraq. Commanders say more troops are needed to bolster the U.S. contingent of slightly more than 30,000, and that more helicopters, more intelligence – more of everything – is needed in a country half again larger than Iraq. It appears more of everything will likely be on the way soon, which is as it should be.
Proud legacy
Jessie Cassada was a child when the U.S. intervened in Afghanistan, but there’s little doubt he had blossomed into a man to be proud of by the time his tour there began.
Cassada’s best friend, Cameron Sproles, said, “He loved being a Marine. He always wanted to be a Marine — since he was a kid. Some of his family was in the Marine Corps, and he just wanted to serve his country.”
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Clark, who was a teacher of Cassada’s at East Henderson, said it was the Marines or bust for Cassada. “No other branch of service was going to satisfy him. It was hard for him to finish his education, but he did it because he was determined to get in the Marine Corps.”
Sproles said Cassada wanted to serve his country and wanted to fight terrorists in Afghanistan. “He wanted to go and protect his country.”
He was a young man in war growing old, a war whose end has yet to come into focus.
And yet, it is a war that will end, as all wars do. It will end because of the call to duty and the sacrifices of young men like Jessie Adam Cassada.
And when it ends, we need to remember that.
Ellie
Jessie Adam Cassada was in middle school when events in 2001 set in motion the headline that appeared last week: “Marine from Hendersonville dies in Afghanistan.’’
Cassada, a 2007 East Henderson High School graduate, died Tuesday supporting combat operations in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.
He was 19.
WNC’s losses
His passing brings to more than a dozen the number of WNC service personnel who have died in the Iraq/Afghanistan theatre since 2001.
It’s hard to fathom that eight years have been shed from the calendar since the beginning of the conflict in Afghanistan.
All indications are that a renewed military and diplomatic focus are in the offing there. It’s a focus that is plainly needed.
Last year was the bloodiest for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion, with 151 deaths. Taliban fighters have shown signs of resurgence, such as the raid on a prison in Kandahar June 13 that freed 400 Taliban fighters. The rugged areas along the Pakistan border have been a haven for such fighters, and the U.S. has never invested the kind of resources into Afghanistan that were brought to bear on Iraq. Commanders say more troops are needed to bolster the U.S. contingent of slightly more than 30,000, and that more helicopters, more intelligence – more of everything – is needed in a country half again larger than Iraq. It appears more of everything will likely be on the way soon, which is as it should be.
Proud legacy
Jessie Cassada was a child when the U.S. intervened in Afghanistan, but there’s little doubt he had blossomed into a man to be proud of by the time his tour there began.
Cassada’s best friend, Cameron Sproles, said, “He loved being a Marine. He always wanted to be a Marine — since he was a kid. Some of his family was in the Marine Corps, and he just wanted to serve his country.”
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Clark, who was a teacher of Cassada’s at East Henderson, said it was the Marines or bust for Cassada. “No other branch of service was going to satisfy him. It was hard for him to finish his education, but he did it because he was determined to get in the Marine Corps.”
Sproles said Cassada wanted to serve his country and wanted to fight terrorists in Afghanistan. “He wanted to go and protect his country.”
He was a young man in war growing old, a war whose end has yet to come into focus.
And yet, it is a war that will end, as all wars do. It will end because of the call to duty and the sacrifices of young men like Jessie Adam Cassada.
And when it ends, we need to remember that.
Ellie