"Debbie Lee says she’s sickened that the city her son sacrificed his life defending has fallen—and furious at the Joint Chiefs chairman’s insistence Ramadi is ‘not symbolic in any way.’"
A continuing comfort to her is her son’s last letter, an email that arrived a fortnight before his death. She had been amazed by the depth and power of these words from the homeschooled son who had always needed extra nudging when a subject did not interest him.
“Language was not one of the strong ones,” she recalled on Monday.
His was now a soul seared to eloquence.
“You can feel the deep impact of being in Ramadi, being in the war zone,” his mother said.
In the letter, the son wrote of the elusiveness of glory and of the enormity of violent death.
“I have seen death, the sorrow that encompasses your entire being as a man breathes his last,” he said. “I can only pray and hope that none of you will ever have to experience some of these things I have seen and felt here.”
But amid the worst, he had seen the importance of kindness and decency, moments when America was at its shining best. He urged those back home to do their part in the struggle to make our country realize its full greatness:
Ask yourself when was the last time you donated clothes that you hadn’t worn out. When was the last time you paid for a random stranger’s cup of coffee, meal or maybe even a tank of gas? When was the last time you helped a person with the groceries into or out of their car?
Think to yourself and wonder what it would feel like if when the bill for the meal came and you were told it was already paid for.
More random acts of kindness like this would change our country and our reputation as a country.
It is not unknown to most of us that the rest of the world looks at us with doubt towards our humanity and morals.
I am not here to preach or to say look at me, because I am just as at fault as the next person. I find that being here makes me realize the great country we have and the obligation we have to keep it that way.
The 4th has just come and gone and I received many emails thanking me for helping keep America great and free. I take no credit for the career path I have chosen; I can only give it to those of you who are reading this, because each one of you has contributed to me and who I am.
However what I do over here is only a small percent of what keeps our country great. I think the truth to our greatness is each other. Purity, morals and kindness, passed down to each generation through example. So to all my family and friends, do me a favor and pass on the kindness, the love, the precious gift of human life to each other so that when your children come into contact with a great conflict that we are now faced with here in Iraq, that they are people of humanity, of pure motives, of compassion.
This is our real part to keep America free! HAPPY 4th Love Ya
Marc Lee
P.S. Half way through the deployment can’t wait to see all of your faces
On August 2, 2006, Lee and his team got into a gun battle with a large force of insurgents in south-central Ramadi.
12 comments:
A very poignant story and certainly one I can understand. Lee's reflections from a combat zone focus on ways to improve the US and the world. He's a regular guy wherever he may be now. I agree that the loss of Ramadi is more than set-back. RIP Lee.
RIP, my brother.
This the right way to remember Memorial Day, Lem. Kudos!
Years ago, I got interested in soldier's letters home, especially letters from those who didn't make it back home. I was impartial though, and published letters from Brits and even Germans. But the ones from American soldiers deserve special attention and I wish that people paid more respect to them. Your post here reminded me of the Mike Monsoor story and the ideas behind it regarding chivalry apply to civilians as well:
Did Chivalry Go Down With The Titanic?
Thanks, Lem.
Iraq is just a political football for the democrat-leftist.
Bash it, trash it, take credit for it, than blame Bush again. rinse and repeat.
Thank you for this, Lem.
I saw this photo on my Twitter TL, it is one I had in mind when I said now that I'm older than they are in the photos when they died, they look like children to me. Others look younger than he. But I did not see his letter. Extraordinary.
But now that he died, now that the project he died for is dropped by the president elected particularly to cancel his effort, I can no longer share his vision, but I did share it. Not now. Any similar effort will be similarly destroyed because of the basic schizophrenic nature of our country and that is an incredibly difficult thing to accept. One's own madness is difficult to accept, but I accept, half of us will destroy any effort no matter what.
I wonder how much of that statement is the JCS and how much the Choom Gang.
And, yes, a lot of good men (and women) went through Hell to secure Iraq and a pompous twerp throws it away just to make a "statement"*.
Don't know what life has in store for little Barry, but it can't be bad enough.
* And, of course, there's A-stan, Libya, the Cold War, and a lot of other things.
chickelit said...
Did Chivalry Go Down With The Titanic?
No, that was the trenches of WWI and the birth of Communism.
This country has ceded it's soul for political expediency at the cost of presidential figureheads idea of legacy. I'm afraid to say that in this day and age and for nearly the last 8 years, our bet and brightest seemed to be nothing but cannon fodder. Intentions are great, but it's the actions that speak louder than the intent. Unfortunately for the chicken-head clown in office, the road to hell has been paved with their bones when this shit happens.
Chris Kyle weeps.
JAL said...
Chris Kyle weeps.
That reminds me of a conversation I overheard the other day...one which I had to interject myself into as the older guy.
Young guy: I watched that "American Sniper" movie the other day. Man, there was some sick shit in there.
Middle age guy: Yeah, that was crazy. He was a licensed murderer.
Young guy: He shot kids and shit.
Middle age guy: Yeah, that was fucked up.
Older guy (me): He shot the kid because he was about to blow up 20 marines!
(silence)
____________
I realized afterwards that Kyle wasn't actually depicted killing a kid, but rather a woman who was about to blow up an advancing column of marines or infantry.
Chip Ahoy ... it seems the young are always those sacrificed in war. I was consider an "old man" when I enlisted in 1968,at age 26, and once promoted to Sergeant in short order, due to the losses of so many before me, I was called "lifer." In a way I guess that was and is true enough.
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