Gold Star Mom Mary Ann MacCombie: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong mission!

[tk2kewl]

I was moved by by the story of Mary Ann MacCombie (from this thread) and decided to try to contact her to offer some modest assistance for her trip to Crawford. She sent me this speech she gave.

If you'd like to help Mary Ann or the Crawford Peace House check this thread for details.

Mary Ann's words...

My son, Sgt. Ryan Montgomery Campbell, would be 26 years old, had he not been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, on the wrong mission.

He was killed on a farm road, south of Baghdad, April 29, 2004.

Ryan was in the wrong place. Iraq.

At the time of Ryan’s death, he had been “temporarily” stationed in and around Baghdad for over a year.

At the time of Ryan’s death, the original and subsequent reasons President Bush had given for invading Iraq had long since been invalidated. Our troops had found no weapons of mass destruction, no powerful military force. The majority of the 9/11 terrorists had been identified as Saudis, not Iraqis. Qusay and Uday, Sadaam’s sons, had been killed. Sadaam had been captured. At the time of Ryan’s death, Ryan could find no reason for our continued presence in Iraq.

Ryan was in Iraq at the wrong time.

Ryan’s official orders were for a term “Not to exceed 365 days or until mission complete unless directed otherwise by the Commander.” Despite having relinquished their base of operations and most of their equipment to incoming troops, despite having sent all but their personal bare necessities back to their permanent duty station, Ryan’s battalion was held over. Extended. Their Commander in Chief had exercised the escape clause: “unless directed otherwise by the Commander.”

Ryan had planned to be home on leave by the middle of April. At the time of his death, Ryan no longer made plans, no longer trusted his Commander in Chief. He wrote his sister, “Whatever you do, do not vote for Bush.”

Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong mission.

At the time of his death, Ryan was a non-commissioned officer serving with the 2 platoon of Charlie Battery, 4/27th Battalion, 2nd Brigade of the First Armored Division. His specialty was support and operation of the self-propelled mounted Howitzer…the big cannons.

At the time of his death, Ryan’s platoon was providing dismounted security for a team of engineers who were searching for and destroying roadside IEDs. A car pulled into the midst of 11 soldiers in Ryan’s platoon. 3 soldiers were wounded and 8 were killed when the driver of the vehicle detonated what has been estimated at more than 500 lbs of explosives. The mission of the platoon that day had absolutely nothing to do with field artillery.

Wrong time, wrong place, wrong mission.

Ryan’s best friend from childhood is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. He, too, is a soldier in the First Armored Division. He, too, is not doing the job for which he enlisted. He was trained to be a tank scout. Now he is a sniper. His term of enlistment was up months ago, but he has been stop-lossed. The Army will not let him leave. He has become a part of the involuntary Army. He should be home by now.

It’s too late for my son but not for his best friend and thousands of their fellow soldiers and Marines.

Now is the right time, the right place, the right mission to
Bring Our Troops Home!

[cliss]

1. That is an amazing article.

If there were any doubts about the war in Iraq, this really dispells them all.

It's great to see another Mom speaking out. Just take a look at the numbers: there are almost 2,000 US troops dead. That's about 4,000 parents, many more siblings, relatives, children. It probably runs in the tens of THOUSANDS.

These people need to stand up. They need to speak up. Now is the time.

[tk2kewl]

2. It takes a lot of courage.

I admire these people so much.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. It was a good time for KBR (of Vietnam war fame) Halliburton,

Bechtel, and all the little offensive defense contractors to rack up on YOUR TAX DOLLARS.

[tk2kewl]

4. wrong time for everyone else

:cry:

[Benhurst]

5. Very moving. Recommended. NT

[tk2kewl]

6. definitely belongs on the greatest page IMO

I have a real hard time even reading the term "Gold Star Mom" without getting chocked up :(

[xiamiam]

7. powerful...im glad shes going..she deserves to be supported and loved..n/t

[neonplaque]

8. I recall the letter from his sister -- below

If for nothing else, I could never have voted for Bush after this reading this:

To Whom it May Concern,

I found out that my brother, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell, was dead during a graduate seminar at Emory University on April 29, 2004. Immediately after a uniformed officer knocked at my mother's door to deliver the message that broke her heart, she called me on my cell phone. She could say nothing but "He's gone." I could say nothing but "No." Over and over again we chanted this refrain to each other over the phone as I made my way across the country to hold her as she wept.

I had made the very same trip in February, cutting classes to spend my brother's two weeks' leave from Baghdad with him. Little did I know then that the next time I saw him would be at Arlington National Cemetery. During those days in February, my brother shared with me his fear, his disillusionment, and his anger. "We had all been led to believe that Iraq posed a serious threat to America as well as its surrounding nations," he said. "We invaded expecting to find weapons of mass destruction and a much more prepared and well-trained Republican Guard waiting for us. It is now a year later, and alas, no weapons of mass destruction or any other real threat, for that matter."

Ryan was scheduled to complete his one-year assignment to Iraq on April 25. But on April 11, he emailed me to let me know not to expect him in Atlanta for a May visit, because his tour of duty had been involuntarily extended. "Just do me one big favor, ok?" he wrote. "Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you."

Last night, I listened to George W. Bush's live, televised speech at the Republican National Convention. He spoke to me and my family when he announced, "I have met with parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved. I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in their prayers and to offer encouragement to me. Where does strength like that come from? How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride? It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good. Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost. And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong."

This is my reply: Mr. President, I know that you probably still "don't do body counts," so you may not know that almost one thousand U.S. troops have died doing what you told them they had to do to protect America. Ryan was Number 832. Liberty was, indeed, precious to the one I lost - so precious that he would rather have gone to prison than back to Iraq in February. Like you, I don't know where the strength for "such pride" on the part of people "so burdened with sorrow" comes from; maybe I spent it all holding my mother as she wept. I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me as I walked away. I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-chapped and sunburned face. I could see that he desperately wanted to believe that if he died, it would be while "doing good," as you put it. He wanted us to be able to be proud of him. Mr. President, you gave me and my mother a folded flag instead of the beautiful boy who called us "Moms" and "Brookster." But worse than that, you sold my little brother a bill of goods. Not only did you cheat him of a long meaningful life, but you cheated him of a meaningful death. You are in my prayers, Mr. President, because I think that you need them more than anyone on the face of the planet. But you will never get my vote.

So to whom it may concern: Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you.

Sincerely,
Brooke M. Campbell

"So to whom it may concern: Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with you.

And fuck anyone who did!