Don't Let Soldiers' Deaths Just Fade Away

Published: May 10, 2008

Regarding "Final Tribute Paid To Fallen Soldier" (Metro, May 7):

Over the past few years all of us have seen newspaper and TV coverage of the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan of some 50 or so of our soldiers who lived and had families in the Tampa Bay area.

Each account temporarily saddened us, especially when we learned what fine and courageous young Americans they had been in life. But each story, in many of us, provoked thoughts of how this "war" had been instigated and initiated by our government based on outright and blatant falsehoods, and that the conflict had resulted in the loss of now thousands of our nation's most precious resource.

During these past few years I had often felt, as a patriotic American and U.S. Army vet and to show my support, sympathy and heartfelt respect for the surviving family, that I should attend one of those memorial and funeral services.

I never did until last Tuesday when I left my home and drove to the Calvary Assembly of God in Dade City.

As I sat in the pew and the service began, I listened to Sgt. Marcus Mathes' young widow, his father and other family members pour out their gut-wrenching grief and heartache. I was quite unprepared for the intensity of my own emotions as I watched and listened.

When it ended and I left the church, I knew then that my personal feelings about the deaths of any more of our soldiers (and there will be more) would never ever be the same - so routine, so remote and so sanitized by media accounts.

The bitter truth is that for most Americans the death of a young soldier - be he a Pat Tillman or a Marcus Mathes - will all too quickly be forgotten; his name, his life history and, most of all, his family. We will say all the standard cliches and mostly meaningless comments of sympathy and then return to our daily lives safe here in America.

To help us renew our support for our soldier heroes, every one of us should plan to attend such a memorial service or funeral where all the grief, pain and heartache is up close and vivid right before you.

P.J. CORR

Wesley Chapel