note from a vet

[Guest guest]

C

Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:45:46 -0500

note from a vet

 

 

This heartfelt message by a veteran of the Iraq war was forwarded to

the Crawford Peace House by Dave Collins of Vietnam Veterans

Against the War. Definitely worth passing on:

-----------------------------

 

[Operation Truth]

A Message to the Crawford Memorial Vandal

 

11:00 AM Aug 17, 2005

 

On Monday night, a vandal in a pickup truck ran over hundreds of small

white crosses that had been installed in Crawford, Texas as a simple

memorial to the Troops killed in Iraq. The vandal, who police say is Waco

resident Larry Northern, was soon arrested, and OpTruth's Perry Jefferies

managed to find his e-mail address. Here's what he had to say:

 

Mr. Northern:

 

I am a Veteran of the Iraq war, having served with the 4th Infantry

Division on the initial invasion with Force Package One.

 

While I was in Iraq,a very good friend of mine, Christopher Cutchall,was

killed in an unarmoredHMMWV outside of Baghdad. He was a cavalry scout

serving with the 3d ID.Once he had declined the award of a medal because

Soldiers assigned to him did not receive similar awards that he had

recommended. He left two sons and awonderful wife. On Monday night,

August

16, you ran down the memorial cross erected for him by Arlington West.

 

One of my Soldiers in Iraq was Roger Turner. We gave him a hard time

because he always wore all of his protective equipment, including three

pairs of glasses or goggles. He did this because he wanted to make sure

that he returned home to his family. He rode a bicycle to work every

day to

make sure that he was able to save enough money on his Army salary to

send

his son to college. At Camp Anaconda, where the squadron briefly

stayed, a

rocket landed inside a tent, sending a piece of debris or fragment

into him

and killed him. On Monday night, August 16, you ran down the memorial

cross

erected for him by Arlington West.

 

One of my Soldiers was Henry Bacon. He was one of the finest men I ever

met. He was in perfect shape for a man over forty, working hard at night.

He told me that he did that because he didn't have much money to buy nice

things for his wife, who he loved so much, so he had to be in good shape

for her. He was like a father to many young men in his section of

maintenance mechanics. They fixed our vehicles with almost no support and

fabricated parts and made repairs that kept our squadron rolling on the

longest, fastest armor advance ever made under fire. He was so very proud

of his son-in-law that married the beautiful daughter so well raised by

Henry. His son-in-law was a helicopter pilot with the 1st Cavalry

Division,

who died last year. Henry stopped to rescue a vehicle belonging to

another

unit on what was to be his last day in Iraq. He could have kept rolling -

he was headed to Kuwait after a year's tour. But he stopped. He could

have

sent others to do the work, but he was on the ground, leading by example,

when he was killed. On Monday night, August 16, you took it upon yourself

to go out in the country, where a peaceful group was exercising their

constitutional rights, and harming no one, and you ran down the memorial

cross erected for Henry and for his son-in-law by Arlington West.

 

Mr. Northern - I know little about Cindy Sheehan except that she is a

grieving mother, a gentle soul, and wants to bring harm to no one. I know

little about you except that you found your way to Crawford on Monday

night

in August with chains and a pipe attached to your truck for the sole

purpose of dishonoring a memorial erected for my friends and lost

Soldiers

and hundreds of others that served this nation when they were called. I

find it disheartening that good men like these have died so that people

like you can threaten a mother who lost a child with your actions. I hope

that you are ashamed of yourself.

 

Perry Jefferies, First Sergeant, USA (retired)

 

============================