Fort Hood Memorial Service

I don't even know what to say--hard to watch this without being sad and angry and scared and so many other things.

Watching the injured soldiers join the crowd before the service begins...can't imagine what they can be thinking as they see the helmets/boots/rifles of those who weren't as fortunate.

Hoping to avoid the political aspects of this, and just pay respect to these tragically fallen soldiers.

 

I really hope you're right about this.

But I fear you're not.

 

I just saw something I haven't seen before at a military funeral, and I just lost it.

The roll call...and the missing responses.

That just tore me up.

 

Oh my.

 

I didn't see the Memorial Service but heard most of the Presidents eulogy, which was perfect.

 

It was touching and a reminder that when we talk about sacrifices for our country, it's not a rhetorical flourish.
God bless the troops at Fort Hood and everywhere, their families and friends.


Thought the vocal "whoos" for the Obamas was a bit odd at a memorial service - I've never understood the "whoo." I remember hearing it for the first time (outside of a high school musical performance) watching a Microsoft presentation by Steve Ballmer. College educated nerd chicks whooing?

 

Imagine the families hearing those names...and the sickening silence that followed.

What a chilling ritual.

 

It's called the roll call of the fallen. And, it's heartbreaking.

There is another way it it sometimes done, although I don't know how the decision is made, where a member of the company answers for the missing, and the company is then reported as complete with the understanding that those not able to answer for themselves are watching over those still there.

 

Here's the roll call.

 

Been to a few police funerals - they do something similar. They use a police radio and a 911 operator calls out for various units, one by one units respond. The fallen one doesn't respond and someone comes on the radio and says "Officer Doe - off duty/end of shift/no longer responding."

 

"We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes."

That got to me. And the roll call.

 

I can't imagine what the folks at Hood are going through. I've got about 10 buddies (all from college and flight school) there, and I talked to all of them the day the incident happened. All of them are safe, and only one of them had any connection to one of the victims.

As an aside, our battalion is hurting, right now, too. During a really hard month of training in preparation for a deployment, one of our up-and-coming NCOs was killed in a motorcycle crash in mid-October. His memorial was held today, a couple of days after the battalion finished its training exercises.

Staff Sgt. Mercano had been in the Army for only four years and had risen to staff sergeant much quicker than his peers. He personally coordinated a very complicated engine upgrade for the 15 helicopters in my hangar (he was in our battalion's maintenance company). After meeting him for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that he would've someday become a sergeant major -- the top rank an enlisted soldier can achieve.

To top it off, we had a soldier from the same company murdered by her husband on Friday, with their two children in the home.

They were a pretty young couple, mid-20s, I suppose, and had two children (4 and 2). No one knows what caused the situation, but the husband shot her, called the police, told them what happened, and then shot himself.

It's a pretty rough time in 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment. Keep us in your thoughts/prayers.