Another War Casualty

I started working for a start up in 2002, I bid the job and won it. The job was supposed to last about 2 weeks and I have been there ever since. The first few weeks there the partners son would come in and help out. I recovered corrupted homework for him and helped him with computers and we worked together for a short period, he was a real nice kid. He joined the Army after High School and I haven’t seen him since. He did very well and they trained him for Special Forces and he became a sniper.

He had that job for two years in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he was home this past weekend, while there he dressed in his Army dress uniform, walked out into the driveway and killed himself. I struggle with what to say to his parents, what are the right words, do they exist? I don’t think so, so we say or fumble words to convey our thoughts and we move on while the family is left to try and figure out why their son took his own life.

War is hell and I imagine being a sniper puts you up close and personal knowing who you’re going to kill and preparing each shot to do so and then pulling the trigger. They train you on how to deal with it but I think many of them struggle with the effects after. I can only guess what was going though his mind that was so bad that ending his life was the only recourse for him to feel he had to take.

I cried like a baby hearing of his death, as much for all the men and women who have died as for him. I pray the price they have paid isn’t wasted. My thoughts regarding the thousands who have died mirrors General Patton so I’ll quote him and end with that.

Rest in peace Scott.

"In my mind we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died." - George S. Patton