Tribute to fallen soldiers.
Soliders are killed every day. We hear about it, say,wow, bummer, and move on. I thought it would be nice for families and people who have known these soldiers to just have another place where they can be remembered.
I'll start. If anyone remembers Army Corporal Steven Koch of Milltown NJ, or has anything nice to say, that would be cool. I hope this doesn't turn into a "war is bad" polarized thread. These guys have given their lives for their country. No matter what you think about the war, they deserve honor and respect. Many of us would not make this sacrifice, yet these brave soldiers have. May they all rest in peace.
Fallen Army Cpl. Steven Koch's hearse rolled slowly by Our Lady of Lourdes elementary school yesterday as pupils holding miniature flags lined the street in poignant tribute to the soldier, father and former student.
Following the hearse past the silent wall of children at the Milltown school were Koch's teary-eyed mother, Christine, and his widow, Amy, each supported by friends holding their arms as they walked to the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Church.
The soldier's father, William Jr., brother, William III, and sister, Lynne, also participated in the procession with other relatives and friends as a solemn drummer from the Middlesex County Pipes and Drums corps beat a cadence and members of the 82nd Airborne Division, with whom the 23-year-old corporal had served, carried his casket into the church.
"No man has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. Steven showed his love by making the ultimate sacrifice," the Rev. Edward Czarcinski told the hundreds of relatives, friends, military veterans and well-wishers who filled the pews.
"Steve lays in repose draped in the flag of his country, which he loved," Czarcinski said.
Koch, who grew up in East Brunswick and had visited his former school just last year, was killed March 3 when a car bomb caused a wall to collapse on him in Sabari District, part of Khost Province in eastern Afghanistan, according to military officials. The region has been the scene of renewed fighting by the Taliban and other extremist groups. Koch was at least the ninth service member with New Jersey ties to die in Afghanistan since the war began. An additional 88 service members with ties to the state have died in Iraq.
As the Koch family sat in the front of the church, a relative held the soldier's 15-month-old daughter, Zoe, who clutched a small American flag in her hand.
"We pray for Zoe," Czarcinski said. "May she always be reminded of her dad's greatness, of her dad's sacrifice and her dad's love for her."
Steven Koch decided to join the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. His mother tried for years to keep him from enlisting, but in 2006 he decided he no longer would be stopped.
Koch was deployed to Afghanistan in January 2007 and was due to come home April 20.
"I hope that five years from now," Czarcinski said yesterday, "when Zoe is going to school, we will be willing to lay down our lives, that the people of Afghanistan and Iraq will be free from war and death. We pray for peace. These are the beautiful ideals Steven believed."
Relatives hugged and comforted each other as the pipes and drums corps played "Amazing Grace," a family favorite. For the final song, the choir sang "America the Beautiful."
"What an honor for this boy to have so many people come out for him," said Elizabeth Gleason, who was one of Koch's teachers at Our Lady of Lourdes School and still works there. Gleason recalled Koch's smiling face when she taught him in a fifth-grade religion class. A fellow student of Koch's from that class sat behind Gleason at the church yesterday to pay his respects, while current seventh- and eighth-graders from the school also attended.
"I think they will forever take this in their hearts," Gleason said.
After the Mass, in a ceremony at the Joyce Kilmer American Legion Post 25 in Milltown, members of the 82nd Airborne Division presented Koch's parents, siblings and widow with medals for Meritorious Service, Good Conduct and the Afghanistan Campaign, all of which were awarded posthumously.
The family also received commemorative coins from the 82nd Airborne Division and Gold Star lapel pins, which are given to relatives of soldiers who die in armed conflict.
Today, the family will receive three more medals awarded to Koch posthumously -- the NATO, Bronze Star and Purple Heart -- when the soldier is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
Tribute to fallen soldiers.
RIP Bro. Condolences to family.
Army Staff Sgt. William R. Neil
Posted by The Star-Ledger March 25, 2008 10:03AM
Categories: Afghanistan
http://blog.nj.com/njwardead/2008/03/medium_neil.jpgArmy Staff Sgt. William R. Neil
Age: 38
Hometown: Holmdel
Circumstances: Died after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
Holmdel soldier is killed in Afghanistan
Posted March 25, 2008 06:01AM
A Holmdel man who gave up a career on Wall Street for life in the Army died after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, military officials said Monday.
Staff Sgt. William R. Neil Jr., 38, was in Sperwan Ghar in the Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan when his vehicle hit the IED Saturday. He was on his second tour in Afghanistan, assigned to the Army 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group as a paratrooper.
In a statement released Monday night, family members called Neil "a true patriot who will never be forgotten."
Neil, known as Billy to his family and friends, died doing what he loved, his family said.
"Billy was a kind and generous person who loved both his family as well as serving his country. We are extremely proud of his courage and his commitment to our country's endeavor and extend our sympathy to other fallen heroes' families," his family's statement said. "He will be sorely missed by family, friends and his comrades still fighting for the cause Billy so dearly believed in."
Neil is at least the 10th service member with New Jersey ties to die in Afghanistan since the war began in the fall of 2001. An additional 88 service members with ties to the state have died in Iraq.
He is survived by his parents, William and Patricia, in Holmdel, and his girlfriend, Lorraine Cappuccino. He also is survived by three sisters, Veronica Cozzi, Patti Neil and Barbara Esposito, and their families, including two nieces and two nephews.
Earlier Monday, Neil's parents declined to speak about their son when they arrived at the family's townhouse in the Hidden Woods development. Before they went inside, Neil's father and mother picked up two baskets of recently delivered flowers left in front of the door. An American flag was flying over the neatly kept front porch.
The statement the family released described Neil as a dedicated soldier who did stints in both the Navy and the Army. In his down time, he enjoyed restoring classic cars, traveling and photography. He also loved reading nonfiction and historical publications and dining on Italian and Mexican food.
Neil was born in Jersey City and graduated from Hudson Catholic High School in 1987, his family said. He enlisted in the Navy after graduation and served for four years.
When he returned home, he worked for five years on Wall Street. But he eventually went back into the military, enlisting in the Army in 1998 as a supply specialist.
Neil served with the 4th Ranger Training Battalion in Fort Benning, Ga., and later went to Army Ranger School. He successfully passed the Special Forces Qualification Course to become a Green Beret in 2006.
He was assigned to Company C, 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Bragg, N.C., when he died.
Neil received several medals and awards during his military career, including the Army Commendation Medal and six Army Achievement Medals. He is expected to receive the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal and the Combat Infantryman's Badge posthumously.
Funeral arrangements will be made through Holmdel Funeral Home, the family said.
4 soldiers know what Iraq really costs
Hope this is ok for this thread. It relates the experiences of 4 soldiers in Iraq
Before and after Iraq
[COLOR=#333333! important]The war there is not an intellectual exercise. It has real, personal consequences.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#999999! important]By Michael Hastings
May 12, 2008 [/COLOR]
In July 2006, four young American Army officers sat at an Italian restaurant in Sackets Harbor, N.Y., about 20 miles from Ft. Drum. Three lieutenants and a captain, they were all friends, all platoon leaders in the 10th Mountain Division; one of them was my younger brother, Jeff, then 23 years old. It was their last meal together before deploying to Iraq.
Two years later, none of the infantrymen remembers what he ordered that night; they all remember what was said: "Statistically, one in four of us is going to get injured or killed over there."
A month later, they arrived in Baghdad, right before the "surge."
On Oct. 2, 2006, Capt. Scott Quilty, 26, was leading a foot patrol in Rustimullah, a town south of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device, or IED, detonated near him. He lost his right arm and right leg.
On Dec. 21, 2006, Lt. Ferris Butler, 26, my brother's roommate at Ft. Drum and in Baghdad, drove down a road in another town along the Euphrates River. Ferris and Jeff's careers in the Army had paralleled each other's -- basic training, officer candidates school, Army Ranger school and now deployment. That day, Ferris "got hit." Another IED. He lost half his right foot and, to use the military acronym, had a "BK" on his left leg, a below-the-knee amputation, which soldiers universally agree is the best worst injury to have, as long as it's just a BK on the "nondominant" leg and the rest of your body is fine.
Lt. Gregory Cartier was my brother's neighbor at Iraq's Camp Stryker. They'd been in the same platoon in Ranger and Airborne school. On May 8, 2007, Greg was on a mission to fill potholes and IED craters in Iraqi roads. Soldiers handed sandbags down a fireman's line, with Greg in the first position closest to the hole. After throwing in several sandbags, a bomb in the hole exploded.
Greg awoke in a bed a week later. He couldn't see anything, but he heard a familiar voice and felt someone touch his arm. "Greg, it's me, Scott, can you hear me?" Greg's first thought was, "What is Scott doing back in Baghdad?" He didn't understand that they both were at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Greg had wounds all over his body; he lost his left eye and suffered a traumatic brain injury ("TBI," in military speak).
My brother, now 25, returned to the United States in November after completing his 15-month tour. He survived more than 200 combat missions -- on the same roads, in the same towns, in the same Humvees -- and received a Bronze Star; his three friends also received military decorations with high honors for their service.
I first heard the story of their eerie 2006 conversation when I met all four together for the first time in Atlantic City in December 2007. It was a dark reunion of sorts. Ferris and Scott were in wheelchairs, a position they were unaccustomed to; Greg wasn't quite himself; and all three were still living at Walter Reed. My brother, Jeff, living back at Sackets Harbor, would visit them on the weekends.
When I saw them this spring, great changes had occurred in how they were dealing with the aftermath of the war. Greg was on his way out of the Army and into law school. Going forward, he said, he no longer wanted to be defined as "a wounded warrior -- I'm just a guy who got injured in a war." Ferris was out of the wheelchair and walking, had met a wonderful woman who had come to volunteer at Walter Reed, and felt he was a completely "new person." Of the hard-nosed military breed who doesn't put too much stock in introspection, Ferris was on his way out of the hospital, with an internship on Capitol Hill lined up for the fall, his application to business school accepted at the University of Maryland. My brother was preparing to leave the Army for medical school.
Scott -- with injuries more severe, outlook perhaps a bit different -- had started working for the Survivor Corps, formerly the Landmine Survivors Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to "helping each other overcome the effects of war and violence." He gave me a book its president, Jerry White -- himself a land-mine survivor -- had just finished writing called "I Will Not Be Broken: 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis."
The book gives advice on how to handle those "unavoidable moments that divide our lives into 'before' and 'after.' " For White, that encompasses those who've fought cancer, got blown up or suffered a tragic loss. White tells the stories of the survivors he's met who haven't just gotten by but have felt life's profound devastations and thrived. The "super-survivors," he calls them. It's a tough-love, self-help book that demands that we not allow ourselves to stay the victim for too long. It gives some answers to the question: How do we go on? These soldiers answer that question, each a bit differently, every day.
This was the first time I'd really gotten to know other Americans who live with the consequences of the war. While I was in Iraq covering the war for Newsweek for two years starting in 2005, the woman I planned to marry was murdered in Baghdad by insurgents on Jan. 17, 2007. Her name was Andi Parhamovich; she'd come to Iraq to work for the National Democratic Institute, an NGO. After she was killed, I returned to the U.S. and started writing. It was an act of survival, a way for me to try to make sense of what happened and to give the beautiful woman I loved a lasting tribute.
We -- Andi, me, Jeff, Greg, Scott, Ferris -- all chose to go to Iraq, volunteers for our respective causes. We were under no illusions about the risks, though that's a glib way of putting it. I don't think anyone can fully grasp the risks until whoosh, wham, through the looking glass you crash on the way to the rehab center at Walter Reed or a funeral parlor in Ohio.
Iraq often gets treated by pundits, writers and politicians -- all those thoughtful cheerleaders turned war critics -- as an intellectual exercise. It's not. Hundreds of thousands live personally with its consequences every day. The tens of thousands of Iraqis who've been killed, the families of 4,074 American servicemen and women killed, the more than 900 contractors killed, the more than 29,000 U.S. wounded. The individuals who make up such statistics -- and those who loved them -- understand what the war actually costs. How paying that cost feels.
Back to the Italian restaurant in Sackets Harbor.
"Statistically, one in four of us is going to get injured or killed."
That stat about infantry officers got turned on its head; three of the four got injured. My brother thinks he said the line that evening at the restaurant. Greg and Ferris think he did too. Scott disagrees, though, and claims it for himself.
Scott suspects that they attribute it to Jeff because he never landed at Walter Reed -- it's a trick of mental revisionism to make everyone's fate seem inevitable, not the random chance of life.
Or as Jerry White writes: "Life explodes, and nothing is ever quite the same."