Veterans Day - 2013 - A Poem Remembering

Adam - Meal after Mike's Last Walk

Adam Dickmyer was killed three years ago - the first casualty of the wars who we knew - the first military funeral we have attended - experienced the sad expression on a widow's face. Times to remember. We have been a military family for ten years: one son an Army Veteran, a second a deployed Navy pilot. I assume there are ways parents are affected by their Veteran children's responses to the conflicts caused by our broken world. Adam's death sent our family into a journey we hadn't expected - our Veteran son was safe his time in the Army - so we thought. A year ago was a period with months added to months of times before, and times of months since, that have consumed our thoughts - the consequences of military conflicts that may not be seen, may not be so obvious as the final losses of ultimate sacrifices.

Veterans Day 2013 – A Poem Remembering

The evening paper in its plastic sleeve rests on the driveway concrete,

Touching the grass lawn skirt at the edge.

It’s 2:00 AM, February 1.

I had just driven home from the airport –

A short, two-night business trip to cold St. Paul,

And now home – the house is empty.

The paper lying there was a novelty –

Knowing she wouldn’t be home for a while –

My wife put on a delivery hold starting December 10.

With all that was planned in the upcoming weeks,

And the unknowns:

Navy Winging Ceremony in Corpus Christi,

A granddaughter’s birthday,
And a month later a grandson’s, too,
Christmas in Oregon,

All my comings and goings for work travel,

Uncertainties, our Army Veteran son

Set up with a new psychiatrist –

Our frail hopes already worn thin the past two years,

His frail hopes worn far worse than ours’– close to being gone;

At that time, the beginning of February

Seemed far enough out to resume delivery.

She comes home tomorrow night.

It’s been a long time since we sat together in our house,

Reading the paper.

February 3, 2012 
__________________________
April 21, 2015. It was not acknowledged by The Veterans Administration that our son was suffering from a service-related condition until the end of May 2014. 

Thought You Should Know

We got an email today from our son letting us know that one of the soldiers he served with for three years at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery was killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 28 - "Thought you should know" was the title line. Yesterday
there was a short report on the NPR Morning Edition radio program about a memorial service held earlier in the week in Afghanistan for another soldier in the 101 Airborne Division who was recently killed. I make a point not to tune out reports of casualties - to stare at the reality, and try not to become callous. When checking the Corvallis news earlier in the week, I also saw that a Marine from nearby Albany had recently been killed. A few months ago I happened on a report in the Los Angeles Times that showed a picture of a father holding his son's Army photograph after learning of his son's death - I knew the father from high school. All of these reports touch me - sons of former classmates, soldiers from

towns or states where we have once lived, loved ones of old friends who go to former churches we attended, and most recently - graduates of the Naval Academy. But this is the first time someone I have met has been killed in war - closer still since our son,  Badge 536, had worked with him. The news about Staff Sergeant Adam Dickmyer, Badge 528, is close to home. We had met him several times when visiting the Tomb, and he was the commander of the relief when Mike took his last walk on the Fourth of July three years ago - he ate the meal we brought to the sentinel's quarters to celebrate the end of Mike's 38 month tour.

I read that the family of Staff Sergeant Dickmyer wants to have him buried at Arlington where he served for six years (1). The daily funeral schedules is posted at the bottom of the cemetery's Website homepage. A photographic memorial put together by Rex Looney who regularly photographs life at the Tomb of the Unknowns is found here. The Associated Press has posted a number of photographs of Staff Sergeant Dickmyer when he was received at Dover Air Force Base (2).
________________________
(1) Internment is scheduled for Wednesday, November 17 from 9:00-11:00 AM in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, the service begins at the Memorial Chapel at Fort Myer.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=130725056983236

(2) See an earlier post about the significance of Dover Air Force Base.
________________________

Fort Campbell Soldier on patrol dies after being struck by an IED 

October 30, 2010

Fort Campbell, KY – A 101st Airborne Division Soldier died October 28th, when struck by an improvised explosive device while on dismounted foot patrol in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. Adam L. Dickmyer, 26, of Winston Salem, NC, was an Infantryman assigned to 2nd Battalion, 502th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He joined the Army in October 2002 and arrived at Fort Campbell in November 2009.

His awards and decorations include:  Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal; Army Achievement Medal; Army Superior Unit Award; Army Good Conduct Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Army Service Ribbon; Non Commissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon; Air Assault Badge; Expert Infantry Badge; Parachutists Badge; Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Identification Badge and Marksmanship Qualification Expert Badge.

Dickmyer is survived by his wife, Melinda K. Dickmyer of Arlington, VA; father, David Dickmyer of Winston Salem, NC; and mother, Stephanie L. Dickmyer, of New Port Richey, FL.
________________________
Other follow up articles reporting Adam's funeral at Arlington National Cemetery are found at:
Boston Globe
Washington Post and here
Winston-Salem Journal

Links Through Time - Memorials

Because of the hot weather outside this afternoon, I was surfing in doors and happened onto the Los Angeles Times Website that 
remembers each Californian who has died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was Googling to see if a friend of mine who died in the summer of 1971 and was buried in the Visalia Cemetery was recorded online, and came on this July 15, 2006 entry. When I saw the name and the face of the father my heart sank - the father was a year ahead of me in high school, I think we played sports together - the son was 21.

After reading the obituary, I went back to the Times' site California's War Dead, and clicked two entries to the left (the next day, July 16, 2006), and came on a soldier who had gone to Corvallis High School - in the town where we consider home in Oregon. I remember reading about him and having this same feeling now as when I read about earlier casualties from Oregon when we lived there.

Then two more clicks to the left, and a Marine from Clovis. I sensed I knew of this casualty, too - July 29, 2006. When I read his obituary, it was mentioned that the funeral service had to be held in a larger church than his own, New Hope - that was a church we attended in the early 1980's when we lived in Clovis. The Marine was the third casualty from his high school's class of 2001 (1). The reason I thought I knew about him was I had read in the Annapolis Capital newspaper a couple of years ago that two brothers from Clovis had been killed in the wars - both were from that same church. As it turned out, the two were different from the Clovis Marine I saw above - still, the two were brothers (November 4, 2004 & August 22, 2007), and that is now seven from the same high school, and three from the same church. A third brother who enlisted with the second brother after their other brother was killed, witnessed the crash of the Blackhawk helicopter that took his brother's and 13 others' lives. Like a Private Ryan, he had to leave service as the sole survivor.

I checked a few more dates in both directions of the sites I list above, but the names were not familiar - only the names of the California cities they were from. That made sense, I wouldn't have thought that a random hit on a Website I wasn't looking for would also be within a couple more clicks - no more than a couple of degrees of separation - from people I may know, or others I could know who live with heart aches that must be so very deep.

I think I have done enough surfing the Web for today.

A search engine that shows all of the fallen in the two wars can be found clicking here.
_______________________
(1) More recent report of the casualties in Clovis found by clicking here.