US Memorial Day

SACRED WORDS May 27or 28, 2005, via Newsbeat1 -- Mudville Gazette, the Home of Milblogs, "free speech from those who help make it possible"

When you go to bed tonight, think that somewhere there's a US Soldier sleeping in a cot in a tent, probably on top of a sleeping bag with a sprinkling of sand for extra comfort...maybe he has a picture of the wife or kids, or if he's really young, mom and dad.

He may have joined for education, or to get out of Dodge, or to see the world, or family tradition, maybe even for patriotism, maybe even because of what he saw on TV on 911!

Can you grasp this? I'm talking about a real person, and he's suffering gladly now to protect you so please take a minute of your life to learn something important about him:

He has the real possibility of dying tomorrow. [. . . . ]

A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. Americans who exercised their God-given right (by virtue of American Birth, and defended by the American GI) to protest helped ensure that unified front would never form.

Strangely enough, that right is what the soldier will fight for. Will kill for, may die for. [. . . . ]

But nothing I've ever written here compares to this letter home from Marine Capt. Ryan A. Beaupre:

Mom & Dad,

Well if you are reading this, then things didn't go well for me over in Iraq. I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you because of this. Please do not be upset with the Marine Corps, the military, the government, or the President. It was my choice to go into the military. The President and my higher commanders were just doing what they thought was best. Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself. There is a paragraph that I read from time to time when I lose focus. "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." John Stewart Mill. Now there is a little Marine Corps bravado in there, but I do believe in the basic premise. I want you to know that I could not have asked for better parents, or a better family. ..... I'll never forget that one of my friends in elementary school said that if he could trade places with one person, he'd trade places with me because of my parents and home life. I truly feel that I've had a blessed life thanks to you two. Please give my love to Alyse & Ryan, Kari & Matt & the girls, Chris & Brandy, and everyone else in the family.

All my love,
Ryan

Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill., was killed March 20 in a helicopter crash in Kuwait.

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