I Heard the News......

Monday morning I heard the news - "Five Soldiers Killed by an IED in Mosul, Iraq" - for some reason it sent shivers up my spine - much like those announcements did early in the war. But, I passed it off - until the email came. And, now, I hover between denial and grief.

I keep checking your MySpace page - surely you have logged in. And, I laugh everytime I do, as you are the only reason I have a MySpace page - it was your way of communicating on your last deployment. I still don't understand the thing.

Now, I am waiting for the DOD Release - the last proof to know for sure - though my source has impecable information.

I look at your wedding picture - just six months ago. I remember when you met - on leave in the fall of 2006. You were as giddy as a school boy. I watched your love grow and your relationship mature. I think of this young widow with only a few months of together time for the two of you. I am so very sad.

I think of you - of the funny pictures you sent and the long journals of your time in Iraq and about your faith and your love for your wife. I see your smile. I hear the dramatization and exaggeration in your stories - Lord, you could tell a story worth listening to. I remember when you wrote and said, "I got shot - don't tell my parents."

And, now it is Tuesday morning and your wife has acknowledged on her MySpace page what I already knew. The DOD Release has yet to come - still pending notification for all five of you, I'm sure. I know the names already and they were people you told me about - men who ate the junk food I sent to you!

I won't write your name until the DOD does. But, that does not stop me from grieving. I take some comfort in the profound faith that you had in God. I pray for your wife and your parents and your sisters and your military family and all of us who learned to love you over the years.