What so Proudly we Hail

Trust.  Trusting someone here can get you killed,  yet it is who we as Americans are.  We are an open and trusting society.  We have our share of faults, just watch the news, our detractors are all too willing, and ready to broadcast our shortcomings.  So be it.  We are Americans, we rise above it, and no matter what the media portrays on television or on radio we rise above it.  No matter how much our allies proclaim our actions to be unjust, and how they will not support this or any other unilateral US action.  We rise above it, and when they call us we are there.  As Mr. Colin Powell proclaimed all we ask for in exchange is a plot of land to bury our dead.  That is who we are.  We also have our detractors at home.  People who call us murders, and say that we are targeting Innocent women and children.  They have absurd websites such as "Forsake the Troops", they use their celebrity status to elevate their own personal agendas and to sway the masses to champion their causes.  They call the President of the United States "idiot", they slander the very nation that affords them the freedom of speech to do so.  Still, we rise above it, and to the death I swore to defend them.  Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  And so we do.  We soldier on, and every day we don our armour and load out into armorured vehicles and drive out into it.  Providing the men who are trying to kill us with a Target, so that if trouble may come, it comes our way.  Not to a little girl coming home from school killed by a mortar round, because the man who sent this weapon made in China, to end her life.  because he was so blinded by ignorance and fanatical bastardized religious vomit, he can't even comprehend that he is the pawn, and when he dies he is not a martyr just one more victim of the Global War on Terrorism.  Do, I respect him?  No.  Do I pity him?  No.  Will I honor him?  No.  I'll forget all about him, and though I don't pray, the loss of this life even one who murders innocents is tragic.  I am a soldier, he is my enemy.  At the end of the day it was him or me, here I am, I hope his journey to hell is a short one. 

Betrayal here is to be expected.  Being lied to, also expected.  Yet when it was one who you trusted, and sought to protect his helpless ones and he turns around and betrays that trust, it is devastating.  Not that I didn't expect it, but nonetheless I am more American at times that this job can allow.  My trust has been shattered by someone who doesn't get the gravity of the game he choose to play.  He will be punished, by his own people, so be it.  If he is guilty, he deserves his punishment.  We are Americans and we rise above it.  We are often called arrogant, and self-righteous.  Guilty as charged, we are called meddlesome, and charged with interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign nations.  Again guilty as charged.  We are reckless cowboys who are ethnocentrists and try to impose our standard of life on cultures and nations that don't want our help.  Ask the average Iraqi, you know the ones never seen on CNN, FOX, MSNBC, or Al Jezerra, ask them if they'd prefer to be back under the reign of Saddam and family.  If you pull all of your unbiased information from the MSM, you may be surprised to find that the average Iraqi, would rather die than go back to that. 

Do I want to be here? No.  I have other designs for the rest of my days, but in the end if these people here realize even 1/10th of what can be achieved in a free society, then my year here was not in vain.  Are we heroes? I don't think so, this is our job, for some of us this is not a job, it is our chosen profession.  This is what we do.  It is who we are.  For the last 16 years of my life it has been who I am.  I have never murdered an innocent civilian, I have never tortured a prisoner of war, I have never treated the Muslim holy book with disrespect.  I have treated all of my enemies humanely.  As well as about 99% of the rest of our Armed Forces.  Some detractors say we are fighting an immoral war and stealing the oil from Iraq, some say this is the President's illegal war.  I invite them to come here and walk a mile in my shoes.  In 60lbs of armour, and ammunition in the 120 degree heat of the cradle of civilization.  I invite them to come here to Iraq, and stare down the highway looking for IEDs in a HHMMWV that has no AC and the very water in your canteen literally is to hot to drink.  I  invite them to come here and remove the body of an innocent man assassinated in his car (shot in the head) simply for taking a job with the Americans (We have a tendency here to overpay).  I invite them to realize that being an American has great benefits, but with those benefits also comes great responsibility. 

I love my country, and I am here because she called me to service.  I am not a hero, I don't consider my comrades in arms heroes either.  This is our duty, and despite the hardship of being away from my home, my wife, and everything I love; this is (for now) who I am Citizen, Soldier, Patriot.

RDC

Comments

[Jordan]

-your country must be proud of you...
-and I AM proud too,to know you..

Jordan

[Brian H]

Just a correction: The expression was "moron", not "idiot", and it was uttered by a junior Canadian Liberal party loudmouth female MP, who has subsequently been expelled from caucus (elected party members) for continuous intemperate mouthing-off.

[Constantine]

"Are we heroes? I don't think so, this is our job, for some of us this is not a job, it is our chosen profession. This is what we do. It is who we are."

Heroes never think of themselves as "heroes". It is the rest of us who on the outside looking in that recognize that by your deeds you are indeed a hero.

If you ever make it to Sacramento, I'd love to treat you to dinner.

You said you don't pray. That is cool. I will pray for you.

God bless you!
Steady aim friend.

Brad Johnson
Sacramento, CA

[chris]

This page should be required reading in K-12 schools across the country.
You wrote that 99% of the military serve honorably. I wish I say the same percentage of citizens behaved likewise.

I want you all home, sir, and yet am so grateful to every serviceman out there, standing ready to serve this wonderful country, regardless who sits in the Oval Office. Your service humbles me. At times, I question if we citizens are worthy of this military.

Thank you for taking the challenge. Stay safe. Come home soon. And please tell your fellow soldiers that the majority of Americans back them and to never doubt it.

[Beth]

God bless you, and THANK you for your noble service to America! HUGE HUG and Godspeed!

[Callimachus]

Your "detractors" may be bigger, louder, and richer than the rest of us here at home. But they are not more numerous. Not by a long shot.

"Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle ... chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field; that, of course, they are many in number; or that, after all, they are other than the little, shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the hour."

--Edmund Burke

[oddybobo]

You have my gratitude. And whether you believe so or not, you are a hero to me, to my young son. To the men and women who died innocently here at the hands of freedom hating fanatics. Soldier on. Watch your back, and come home safe!

[Suzie]

Thanks to you and all of our military personnel for all of your service and sacrifices.

[Tony Miller]

Thank you, Brother. Our prayers are with you.

[Genuine]

God bless you and yours. From my family we thank you for your service.

[Solomon2]

"I invite them to come here to Iraq"

Probably won't make a difference if detractors can't find facts to fit their agendas. Better question is, why pay attention to such people at all?

[Wendi]

Thank you for these eloquent words of wisdom! Thank you for serving your country with Pride! Thank you for serving your country with Honor!

THANK YOU!

[Stephanie in TX]

Thank you, Sir.

[susan]

It is no wonder the American public places it's greatest trust in those who serve in our military and the lowest trust in those who editorialize from Ivory Towers.

Sending lots of hugs and prayers from NYC.

[Juliette]

Wow. Thank you. For everything.

Thank you for your service!

[lkbts]

you carry on your shoulders a huge burden and responsibility. To an Iraqi, you represent an entire nation and if your actions are right and just you will eventially win their respect. Think not of the rights and wrongs of what others think about your presence there - it is not your concern. You are a soldier, you fight where you're told to fight and the less emotions you have the more objective you become.

People can say all sorts of things to support you especially if they havent heard the crack of a round passing you and the involentry effects of a compression wave near a blast. If you get hit, it will be you bleeding while they carry on the lives etc.
So think not about the others and think for yourself and be strong. There is a certain feer that most people reading these blogs will never feel - but you have.
That alone wins the respect of any man whom put on a uniform.
Only in the years to come will we know if this war was right or wrong - NOT NOW.
Do you work son, remember your morals and stay calm under all situautions and we'll see you home in no time.

[devildog6771]

Well said Russ. I can add nothing that hasn't already been said.

I offer my heartfelt condolances to Mr. Frickey and his family. I lost someone too, not a son, but he was my sister's only child. I share your grief. Your courageous out pouring of support for our troops is a worthy tribute to your son. God Bless you and your family.

[Subsunk]

Russ,

Very well spoken, youngster. I believe in you and your mission. You are doing outstanding work for your country. And the vast majority of us here at home are thrilled, impressed, awed and overwhelmed by the performance of you guys in such a hostile environment.

Keep up the excellent work. Don't let your guard down. And never fully trust your Iraqi charges. They will never love you. They may grow to respect you, but they will never love us. We, on the other hand, cannot fail to love each of you as the most outstanding children America has ever produced. God bless you, be careful, and come home with your job well done.

To the Frickey family: Americans will be eternally grateful to you for the service and the life of your son and his compatriots. His sacrifice, while it can never be justified to you and your entire family, was an offering to the continuation of our country, and for the future humane civilization of the Iraqi people and ultimate peace in the Middle East. I know your grief is terrible and will seem unending, but you have my deepest sympathies on your loss, my utmost respect for the superb American you raised, and my genuine love for both you and for him for his sacrifice in support of freedom and justice thoughout the world today. God bless you, too, and grant you relief from your solace, the support and strength to carry on with his finest memories, and the peace which will someday come from knowing that his loss was not in vain.

Press on, To Victory.

Subsunk

[Rosemary]

I am humbled by your words. I am also proud to know we have such men as you.

To me, you are a hero. You have sacrificed much to save lives, so many lives, of people you may never know. You do that without asking anything more than...well...I don't know what you ask.

I will, however, infer respect. You have mine. Thank you so much for your service. I pray for the day when you will come home safely. Thank you.

[Kathleen A]

Well, you might say you're no hero - but without you we would not be free. So thanks. Thanks for being a great American and for doing the rough work, voluntarily. Some people don't deserve your sacrifice. Some of us try to make sure we don't take it forgranted. Thanks.

[Vance P. Frickey]

Good site. And thanks for defending us.

My son, Sgt. Armand Luke Frickey, Louisiana Army National Guard, died in action on Jan. 6th 2005 in Taji, Iraq with the rest of his squad (a cavalry component of the 256th Infantry Brigade) and the crew of his Bradley when a roadside bomb detonated, killing them all.

I know he would have appreciated your service and your blog

Good luck, and try to come home.

Vance Frickey

[Huntress]

Very eloquent, Russ. In reading your closing paragraph I was reminded of this statement by the late Arthur Ashe:

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

I think Arthur would agree with me when I say that you and your comrades exemplify true heroism.

[LotharBot]

We will rise above it.

Well said.

[Susie]

The majority of the American people are in complete support of our Military. Unfortunately, the handful of those who don't are loud.
Thank you for all you do. You are a hero to me.