LA Times/Stars & Stripes: My brother, the warrior, died for ... ?

[lebkuchen]

There he was, 30 days into his tour, hunkered down on a hot May evening. Reconnaissance reported enemy troops dug in just steps beyond the ridge line, patiently waiting for dark to overrun and kill everyone in my brother's company.

The sun was setting. The order came to charge. My brother flew over the ridge, an anonymous new guy to the men who covered his attack.

Amped, no doubt, on adrenaline, he must have struggled to recall his basic training. M-16 on automatic, he descended into the crossfire of two rattling machine guns. Bullets shredded his body, no part spared. That charge and two others before dawn did what they were meant to do. They showed force. They scattered the enemy into the hills. They bought some time.

The price of that night in Vietnam? Nine dead Marines, one of them my brother. The war in Iraq, with its horrifying body counts and obituaries, has set me to contemplating the bizarre calculus of military life and death.


http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-wardeath9oct09,0,293647.story?coll=la-sunday-commentary