Question Of The Week, 3/5/06
Good morning. I read an article by Robert Burns and Lolita Baldor that tells about the Army's plans to investigate the death of Pat Tillman at Newsday.com while I was deciding what this weeks question would be. One short paragraph just jumped out at me and left me with a question. "We are obligated to answer the family's questions, as we are with all grieving families," Curtin said". This weeks Question Of The Week is. When someone is lost while serving in the United States military do their family members ever really get all of their questions answered? I'll post my answer in the Comment Section Monday night.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
posted by David Schantz | 1:55 AM
3 Comments:
This is a front-page, below-the-story in today's Washington Post. An excerpt from the article:
"A defense official said that it will probably focus on potential charges of negigent homicide, which means investigators will try to determine wheter soldiers fired recklessly without intending to kill their fellow soldier....
"Soldiers admitted emptying their high-powered weapons at an Afghan Militia Force soldier working with the Rangers and then on Tillman's position without knowing what exactly was in their sights. The Afghan soldier was also killed, while a U.S. soldier hiding near Tillman, behind a rock, survived."
This weeks Question Of The Week is. When someone is lost while serving in the United States military do their family members ever really get all of their questions answered?
Right now, I'm reading Joan Didion's book The Year of Magical Thinking. I'm not a Didion fan, but her book largely deals with the idea that by investigating cause of death over and over, one's subconscious is hoping to change the reality of that death. In other words, a peculiar form of denial. Is that what the Tillmans are doing?
Pat Tillman chose to serve. Of course, it is terrible that he died from friendly fire. But this type of tragedy happens very frequently in battle.
That it is impossible, is no excuse for not giving the fullest accounting possible. Having great respect for the "can do" attitude and as it often proves apptitude of our military, I do doubt their ability to answer the foremost question of the entire history of grieving that remains so often unanswered. Why?
This is not to suggest any vanity of the current mission, but to imply that grief is a personal process for answering that question.
First I want to thank you for stopping by to answer this weeks question. There were 3,350 United States soldiers listed as POW/MIA's in WWI. In WWII there were 78,777. In Korea there were 7,190 POW's, 4,428 of them were repatriated and there were 8,177 MIA's. There were 2,459 POW/MIA's in Vietnam. One United States soldier was listed Missing/Captured in the First Gulf War and one POW/MIA in the Second Gulf War. All POW/MIA's (prior to July 13, 2003) are now noted as PFOD (Presumptive Finding of Death)except Gulf War Michael Speicher. To me attaching PFOD to someones file is like telling their friends and family members we have no proof, no remains. You'll just have to take our word for it, your loved one is dead. So in the case of our POW/MIA's I'll have to say no their family members don't get all of their questions answered.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic.
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