CityView Magazine

    deepest regret. Believe me, I didn’t want to die, but I know it was part of my job. I want my country to live for billions and billions of years to come. I want it to stand as a light to all people oppressed and guide them to the same freedom we know. If we can stand and fight for freedom, then I think we have done the job God set down for us. It’s up to every American to fight for the freedom we hold so dear. If we don’t, the smells of free air could become dark and damp as in a prison cell. “We won’t be able to look at ourselves in a mirror, much less at our sons and daughters, because we know we have failed our God, country, and our future generations. “I can hold my head high because I fought, whether it be in heaven or hell. Besides the saying goes, ‘One more GI from Vietnam, St. Peter; I’ve served my time in hell.’ … Don’t mourn me, Mother, for I’m happy I died fighting my country’s enemies, and I will live forever in people’s minds. I’ve done what I’ve always dreamed of. Don’t mourn me, for I died a soldier of the United States of America.” In his letter, Strickland also mentioned that the fighting would not end with his generation. He predicted his own death, writing the letter shortly before he was killed, and he said that future wars would come. And they have. With the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new generation of soldier is carrying on the war letters tradition, on new fronts and in new ways. An Internet search for “war blog Fort Bragg” turns up no fewer than 79,000 results. There are soldiers, of course, but there are new voices, too. Women weigh in on life as wives of soldiers, a balancing act of family, work and worry. They share the mundane and the life- changing events in their lives. So do their husbands. A soldier had been to Iraq and returned again. He blogs under the name of Sminklemeyer, but his real name is Fred Minnick. He is a freelance writer and photographer, and some of his words are included in a book on military bloggers called “The Blog of War.” In 2005, he wrote about a friend named Sammy: Aug. 19, 2005 “Sammy is one of my best friends,” Minnick wrote. “He served with me in Iraq and in this difficult environment, we shared laughs, close calls and toilet paper. Sammy has this infectious laugh that always brightened the dullest moments. In many ways, he was my refuge.” A year later, Minnick wrote that son, Sgt. Ryan D. Sammy’s  We’re Ready & Waiting For You...        Jopek, an Army National Guardsman from Wisconsin, was killed in Iraq just two days before. “His death just breaks my heart,” he wrote on Aug. 3, 2006. The world shared their news, and in a military community like ours, their pain as well.CV   CityViewNC.com | 41 

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