More Than Its Share of Sacrifice

In speeches and ceremonial remarks, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear frequently refers to the Commonwealth's long history of military service, speaking with pride of how Kentuckians have enthusiastically volunteered for duty.

I'm not sure he fully grasps the consequences.

From the Herald:

But for the soldiers of Kentucky and their families, the war is far from over.

To understand the impact of these wars on the American fabric, McClatchy reviewed reams of reports and records from the Department of Veterans Affairs. It settled on London — a typical small American town that, when it comes to matters of war, is anything but typical.

In the past decade, nearly 200 men and women from these parts have left the service and are now collecting disability payments for the injuries they sustained during military service. Three soldiers from London were killed, a higher number than most small towns and many larger ones.

(One hundred and three Kentuckians have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan clusterfucks.)

And a McClatchy assessment finds that the area has one of the highest rates in the country of veterans collecting disability payments for post-traumatic stress disorder — one the costliest and most prevalent ailments to emerge from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

These grim benchmarks set London apart from many American communities.

To gauge just what these wars have done in this part of Kentucky, McClatchy visited the area and talked to many who live here: veterans, preachers, shopkeepers, parents and wives.

Read the whole eye-opening, heart-breaking thing.

But don't expect to see any criticism of the war, not even from the families nearly destroyed by it. That's not a McClatchy bias: that's a true depiction of how Kentuckians view military service.

To our everlasting detriment.

Number 80

Staff Sergeant Gary L. Woods, Jr. was four months away from the end of his third Iraq tour when he was killed by a suicide bomber in Mosul.

The 24-year-old Shepherdsville native was looking forward to settling down with his wife and starting a family, according to the Courier-Journal.

Woods’ father, Gary Woods Sr., said that his son, who went by his middle name, Lee, was a talented musician who sang and played the trombone, drums, piano and guitar while a student at Bullitt Central High School. He was also a member of the school’s football team.

But after finding satisfaction in ROTC classes, his son entered the military after high school, he said.

“He joined the Army just as we were going into the second gulf war,” Woods Sr. said by telephone from his home in Lebanon Junction. “He knew the chances were that we’d still be in it, but he was convinced that’s what he wanted.”

Woods rose to staff sergeant and was leading the soldiers’ mission the day they died, his father said.

SNIP

“I want everyone to know what a good man he was.”

Read the whole thing.

Number 79

Kentucky's 79th casualty in the Iraq Clusterfuck is a 30-year-old Army sergeant from Scottsville, on the Tennessee border.

Joshua A. Ward was killed along with three other soldiers by a suicide car bomb in Mosul, Iraq, on Feb. 9.

Ward was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division of Fort Hood, Texas. The brigade deployed to Iraq in December and is on its third tour in Iraq.

The Associated Press reported that the explosion came as American vehicles were passing near an Iraqi police checkpoint. It was the deadliest single attack against American forces in Iraq in nine months.

According to various news reports, Ward is survived by his parents, Patti and John, sister Brandi Ward and brother Johnny Ward, all residents of Matagorda, Texas; and older brothers Ben and Eric of the Houston area.


He had two sons - 9-year-old Joshua Allen Ward Jr. and 7-year-old Zane Tyler Ward - with their mother, Misty Ward, in Scottsville. News accounts also mentioned a girlfriend of 11 months, Diana Gunderson, and another son expected in July.

Joshua Ward’s sister Brandi was quoted as saying he graduated from Needville (Texas) High School in 1997 and received a football scholarship to Texas A&M-Blinn College, but a car accident that shattered his elbow prevented him from going.

He enlisted in the Army shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and was due to be discharged in September.

According to the Fort Bend Herald, Ward and Gunderson were planning to move back to Kentucky after his discharge.

(His mother) Patti said she sensed Saturday that her son knew he was about to die. He routinely called home every three days, but he made three calls Saturday.

“I talk to him every day by e-mail. We meet on Yahoo every morning and we’d text each other throughout the day,” Patti said.

Joshua told his mother he was going on a mission and they’d talk Monday, when he returned.

“Monday morning when I got out of bed, something was wrong immediately. I went to the computer and his name wasn’t lit up,” Patti said, bursting into tears. “I texted him and said, ‘You really need to call me right away,’ and he never contacted me. It was 3 o’clock that afternoon when I got the call.”

“It was his third deployment and I just knew he wasn’t going to come home this time,” Patti said.

Number 78

Kentucky's first Iraq clusterfuck casualty of 2009 is a Marine from a tiny mountain town deep in far southeastern Kentucky coal country.

Lance Cpl. Chadwick A. Gilliam, 29, of Mayking, Kentucky, died January 3 of an apparent heart attack at a U.S. military base in Kuwait. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

He grew up in eastern Kentucky and attended Whitesburg High School.

He was an infantryman and joined the unit June 25, 2007, and was promoted to lance corporal last year.

Gilliam attended the old Whitesburg High School in the mid 1990s. One of his former teachers, Scottie Billiter, said Gilliam inspired other students.

Billiter, now an assistant principal at Letcher County Central High School, said Gilliam had a wide array of interests, from the football team to the Spanish club. Billiter was Gilliam's home room teacher in 1995.

"There is not one of those kids that I had in my home room that I could tell one bad thing about because I have nothing but great fond memories of him. He was definitely a big part of that. He was a big part of who we were," Billiter said.

Number 77

Marine Lance Corporal Thomas Reilly Jr., 19, of London, Kentucky, died in Anbar province, Iraq, four days before Christmas, and the day before he became an uncle.

Reilly is remembered in his hometown paper:

The 19-year-old lance corporal — who had considered entering culinary school after his military service — was killed in combat Sunday while serving in Iraq.

Mary King, Reilly's former teacher and Family, Career and Community Leaders of America advisor, said she kept in contact with her former student after he had been deployed to Iraq over the summer.

SNIP

King said Reilly's mother, Georgina Bray of London, was given the news of her son's death at the hospital in Harlan, where her daughter Regina had just given birth.

SNIP

"I had talked to him just a few days ago, and I just had mailed a card on Saturday and I got this news Monday," King said. "He was killed Sunday, 10 p.m. our time."

King said Reilly's mother had signed for him to become a recruit at age 17. Reilly graduated from South Laurel High School in May 2007, and from boot camp last October. He had been stationed in Hawaii and was deployed to Iraq in July.

"That's just what he wanted to do," King said. "He saw that (the Marines) as a place he could excel and be a leader and be someone who could be in charge and move on up in the ranks."

At South Laurel High School, Reilly showed his potential to lead as an office holder in both the local and regional chapters of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, a national organization for students in Family and Consumer Sciences education, formerly known as home economics.

"He took the lead in things like that," King said. "His senior year he was a teacher's aide for me. He was very reliable.

"He was very interested and had a talent in culinary," King added. "He could decorate cakes really well... He was interested in maybe doing a culinary school at some point."

Carol Eicher, a former FCCLA advisor at South Laurel, said Reilly was a wonderful student and that club members had continued to write to him after he was stationed in Iraq. Reilly also came by the high school to say goodbye to teachers and friends before his deployment — something Eicher said he was very proud about.

"He had his dress blues on, and I gave him a big hug and I said 'please be safe,'" Eicher recalled. "...He just looked so handsome."

No, President-Elect Obama; 16 months is not remotely close to fast enough. 16 days is far, far too slow.

Number 74

Sergeant William P. Rudd, 27, of Madisonville, Kentucky, died Sunday from wounds he received from small arms fire while on combat patrol in Mosul, Iraq.

Rudd was a native of rural Hopkins County in Western Kentucky. Hopkins County is where Governor Steve Beshear was born and raised.

Rudd was an Army Ranger, a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment based at Fort Benning, Georgia.

His father said Rudd, who joined the Army in October 2003, loved what he did. That's what brings his family peace.

"When someone loves something so much and something bad happens, we're at peace with it," said William E. Rudd, who still lives in Madisonville. "Through God's strength, we're able to celebrate his life."

Fighters attacked as Rudd was conducting a raid on associates of senior al-Qaida leaders. It was his eighth deployment -- his sixth in Iraq with two previous ones in Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Fort Benning.

A 1999 graduate of Madisonville North Hopkins High School, the future Ranger worked in a factory for a few years. His father said the job wasn't going anywhere.

"During that time, he talked about the military a few times," his father said. "We encouraged him. He said, 'I'm going to do it,' and he did. He loved what he did. He took the politics out of it and did his job. He would not comment about whether it was right or wrong. It was the bravest thing he ever did. It made a man out of a boy. It brought the whole family closer together."

SNIP

The last time Rudd's father heard from his son was in a Sept. 27 e-mail. He hadn't spoken with him for about two to three weeks.

"We were just talking about Thanksgiving," Rudd said. "He said, 'I better go hunting and spend a few quiet days hunting.' I said, 'I'll make it happen.' "

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Number 72

Kentucky's 72nd casualty of the Iraq/Afghanistan catastrophes is yet another Lexington boy: Specialist William L. McMullan III, 22. An Army medic, he had recently
received the Bronze Star.

He died July 8 in Bagdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

He married Elizabeth, a student at the University of Kentucky, just last year.

McMillan followed his father, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, into the military, and his mother, a nurse, into the medical field.

McMillan, 22, was seven months into his first tour in Iraq, his family said. He had received the Bronze Star, his mother said, the fourth-highest combat award in the service, which is unusual for his position. His mother said McMillan seemed almost genetically inclined for his position in the Army. “It's almost like this is what he was born to do, you know? It was definitely in his blood.”

Specialist William McMillan is Lexington's second Iraq/Afghanistan loss in three weeks.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Number 71

Kentucky's 71st casualty in Smirky/Darth's spreading Middle East clusterfuck is Eric Terhune of Lexington.

The 34-year old was a captain in the Marine Corps and also a helicopter pilot. Terhune was on his third tour. He spent the first two in Iraq before heading to Afghanistan, where he'd been since April.

According to the Department of Defense, Terhune "died June 19 while conducting combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan. (He was) assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif."

The Herald-Leader reports today that family members of Terhune declined to comment Friday.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

Does Mitch Really Want to Get Re-Elected?

UPDATE Below, UPDATE II

Then why does he say unforgivable - and unforgivably stupid - shit like this?

Senate Minority Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on U.S. casualties in Iraq: "Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers."

In other words, the wages of professional soldiery are disability and death? Yeah, that's right, Mitch, they chose to fight in an injust occupation while handicapped by a criminal dictator pretending to be president, without enough troops, without proper equipment or protection, without sufficient help from allies, in a doomed cause Smirky is ensuring they cannot win.

So fuck 'em.

Right back atcha, Mitch.

UPDATE. 2:45 p.m.: Likely Democratic challenger Lt. Col. Andrew Horne responds to Mitch's despicable insult to the troops.

"I would say that Mitch McConnell owes every member of our service and the families of the fallen an apology, but no apology from him can take back the venom he has spewed at our troops, this time. For anyone to believe that casualties of war are somehow more acceptable because they were not draftees is disgusting. For the Republican leader in the United States Senate to say that is beyond repugnant."

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE II, 3:29 p.m.: Media Czech at BlueGrassRoots notes that Mitch's repugnant comment comes at the same time that the state he represents is mourning the deaths of three Fort Campbell soldiers in a bombing in Iraq. But hey, they're professional soldiers, they deserve it, right, Mitch?

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.