The Cost of War

I think some of you may know this and some of you may not, but I come from a super small town in northeast Ohio. The town is called Champion, yet I think I was the only one who thought using the song “We are the Champions” for our senior song was awesome! Anyway, I graduated with 148 other students. Our high school had about 400 kids in it. Yep, it was little. I graduated in 2001 with a girl named Nina. We were not anywhere near being best friends or anything, but I went to school with her throughout the years. O.k., hold on to that, and let me tell you something else.

When I was 16 my parents made me get a job. I thought they were the worst parents in the world to make me do that, but I ended up enjoying it. It was one of the best things they made me do. Well, when I worked there I worked with a guy who I also went to school with. He was in the class of 2002. He was a nice, quiet kid. His name was Rob.

Sometime after graduation Nina and Rob decided to get married, and at some point Rob joined the military. In March 2007, Rob died in Baghdad of wounds suffered when an explosive device went off near his vehicle. He was only 22, and one of my fellow classmates was left a widow.

O.k., so here’s another story about a kid that I went to school with named Mike. He was also a year behind me in the Class of 2002. He and my brother got into a lot of fights, some were even physical! Now looking back I can just picture the fights, and for some reason it’s a little funny to think of these two little boys fighting. Needless to say, Mike was not my brother’s best friend.

Well, sometime between then and now he joined the military. He just recently took his own life due to post-traumatic stress disorder from being in the war.

Recently Cherokee County (which is the next county over from us) lost its first soldier since the Vietnam War, and there were tons of memorials for that soldier. It was wonderful to see. It made me think about the county where I am from in Ohio, and how many soldier's lives have been lost who were from there. The little town where I am from lost two lives. The kids in the class behind me lost two members of its small class. What an honor that they gave their lives for their country, but it never ceases to make me incredibly sad for not only them, but most especially for those who they left behind.

How grateful I am to be an American.