Memorial

It has been a relatively quiet couple of days. Last night was pretty somber, though. We attended a memorial service for two soldiers killed in action over the weekend. This is the third one I've attended. There have been one or two others since we've been here, but we'd been out on missions and unable to attend. I hate these things. Back home these two guys were probably reported as just cold numbers in a steadily increasing death toll. I guess that's okay. I suppose we can't reasonably expect to have a meaningful personal connection to every death in this war. I didn't know either of these guys either. However, I saw the grief in the faces of buddies of mine that did know them. And I listened as their voices cracked when they spoke of the quality of their character. You didn't have to know these young men to feel deeply that something very special was lost.  I remember one of the speakers at the memorial service asking almost rhetorically, "Why is it always the good guys that get taken from us?" I don't remember what he said after that, but I remember looking at the sea of faces around me and thinking, "Because that is all we've got."