SF Gate: Boyhood Wish (Kill Enemy Soldiers) Led To Violent Death

[stopbush]

Boyhood wish: kill enemy soldiers
A violent culture led to violent end
- Chris Christensen
Sunday, August 14, 2005

In our small town of Columbus, Texas (pop. 3,900), we buried one of our local sons on his 19th birthday. He was killed in action in Iraq on June 20. He was a friend of my two oldest sons, and his father was a friend of mine.

There is not a lot for a young man to do in our town, and most leave for college or a job. Christopher came to see me at his father's request prior to enlisting last summer. I am an Air Force vet who served in Southeast Asia. I talked blue in the face to try to get Christopher to go with me to an Air Force or Navy recruiter. In fact, I told him in no uncertain terms that the Army would put a gun in his hands and send him out to be a target. He wouldn't listen.

His head was already filled with a lot of crud from the recruiter about being a scout, riding a four-wheeler ATV around -- big fun! (Christopher was an Eagle Scout.) He had an acquaintance who had been doing that (not in Iraq), and I got the sense that this acquaintance was giving him the hard sell, too. I wonder if the Army has a referral bonus system.

Christopher also had this inexplicable desire to "go shoot some 'Raqis." Maybe some latent desire from too much video gaming. I heard that in the weeks before his death, he was involved in a brief firefight and froze in terror. No doubt reality caught up to him at the speed of a 7.62-caliber bullet. Too bad his recruiter or buddy had not told him about the fear he would experience when he realized someone wanted to really hurt him or kill him.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/14/INGKKE5FVG1.DTL&type=printable

[kiraboo]

1. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The only way to avoid war is to avoid having a military. As long as young men and women continue to sign their lives away either as a "great career option" or in the name of "freedom", then they will continue to die. I'm sorry, but about this one soldier one can truly say, "But he volunteered."