One year ago today, I was eating my lunch and getting ready to leave for work. On CNN it was reported a helicopter went down in northern Iraq and all the soldiers on board were killed. That was the operational area my son was in and my heart sunk.
I headed to work and tried not to think about what happened, but it was hard. In a break room the NBC news reported the helicopter crash and said it was part of Task Force Lighting, which was the task force my son belong to. In my office I launched my IM program and kept it on waiting to see if my son would get online, but he did not. I went home from work that evening turned on my computer to see if he was online yet and he wasn’t. I turned the volume up loud, so if he did come on I would hear it when he pinged me.
I slept in my computer room that evening waiting to hear from him and by morning there was still no word. It is hard waiting to hear if your son has been killed or possibly spared and makes for a long day. About 11am my computer came alive with a ring tone. I went to the screen and could see there was a message from son, “i’m alive.”
I was so relived and overjoyed to hear from him, yet I was so sad for the families who were also waiting to hear from their loved one who never would again. My son said it was a long day and he had been assigned to extricate the bodies and collect the belongings of his friends who where killed the helicopter. As he told me some of the details there would be long breaks in the messages and he would come back and repeatedly say, “it was a long day.” My son was heart broken to see his friends lives end in such a way.
One year ago today these men from the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, lost their lives in Iraq.
Capt. Derek A. Dobogai, 26, of Fond du Lac, Wis.
Staff Sgt. Jason L. Paton, 25, of Poway, Calif.
Sgt. Garrett I. McLead, 23, of Rockport, Texas.
Cpl. Jeremy P. Bouffard, 21, of Middlefield, Mass.
Cpl. Phillip J. Brodnick, 25, of New Lenox, Ill.
Cpl. Joshua S. Harmon, 20, of Mentor, Ohio.
Cpl. Nathan C. Hubbard, 21, of Clovis, Calif.
Spc. Michael A. Hook, 25, of Altoona, Penn.
Spc. Jessy G. Pollard, 22, of Springfield, Mo.
Spc. Tyler R. Seideman, 20, of Lincoln, Ark.