Wednesday, March 26, 2008

For My Oldest Son Gi Joe

14 years ago my oldest son Micheal told me he was going to grow up to be GI Joe. He did. His senior year of high school he turned down college opportunities and joined the US Army. He did as he had said and became GI Joe.  

On February 24th, 2008 my son Micheal's unit was escorting an engineering unit when his vehicle was hit by an IED. My son was driving and the IED took out the driver's side door. The five other men in the vehicle walked away thankfully. My son however was hurt too badly and although the combat support hospital did everything possible he was lost to us. My son did not choose for things to happen as they did but if he could have he would have taken that blast so the others would walk away. 

The day before he was killed he told me he had decided to re-up for 2 more years. He had a job to finish and he so loved being a soldier. And he was good at it. I am just now finding out a lot of his accomplishments. He never told me, never bragged. To him it was just his job and he was just doing it the best he could.  I will wear his bracelet so people will ask and I can tell them about my son and how he loved his family, his friends and his country enough to put on that uniform and fight for the way of life and freedoms he so believed in. I will tell them how he helped plant the seeds of hope and freedom in Iraq.

Angelia

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