I have an idea...

I have been toying with an idea, but I am not sure how this will work out. I may have to get my own domain, or webpage instead of staying with blogspot. Blogspot has been great to cut my teeth on... but... it has its limitations.

Back to my idea; I get the Department of Defense announcements sent to my email. You can do the same thing by clicking here and signing up for them. You get a lot of news releases that are not very interesting for civilians (or military for that matter) but you DO get the releases announcing the death of our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen.

Each time I'd get the announcements (always too many) I'd hate to just simply delete them after reading them. It just made me think...it is like their death didn't matter, I don't know him or her; just send this to the trashcan. I felt I wasn't doing them honor. I had thought about doing something similar to Grey Eagle's milblog and to list the Fallen on the side of the blog. Blogspot being what blogspot is, and my limited skills with the web being what they are... I wasn't able to do that. So I quickly forgot the idea.


Yet the notices of the Fallen kept coming.


I'd keep them in my inbox for awhile. I would read them, look at the rank, name, and especially the ages. I would imagine the wife, the mother, and the children at home wrestling with the news. Struggling to keep from losing their wits.

Even NOW I just got another notice; an Army casualty.

Then I watched Matt from Black Five on CNN today. The thrust of his brief interview was the media's lack of coverage for our Heroes, for the Fallen. As I watched I was struck again, how we all have a tendency to let the daily news numb us to reality. I have found myself doing it, I'd see so much footage of children starving in Africa that after awhile I become callous to the cries, as I sat in my leather reclining couch, a cold drink next to a sugary snack on my end table close at hand. In an instant, with a switch of my remote I could change the picture on the screen from a suffering child to a funny comedy. Just as quickly I could switch off the emotions that reach out to that child.

And even more amazing, where is the footage of the War on Terror? We see quite a bit about the politics, we hear about local heroes. There is an absence that is disquieting. At least to me.

So I would like to try and post the dispatches I get. Obviously the families will have been notified already. I don't expect to be posting something that you aren't aware of; I am not trying to be a newscaster. I just want to give these guys and gals their due. They died for you and me. They died so we don't have to. I think a short blurb here is the least I can do. So I will begin to post about the deaths here as I get them. Just a short line and any details I can glean.