Two Fallen Virginia soldiers this past week,21 Fallen Heroes altogether

I have not been blogging much this week due to being busy with my volunteer duties for the Soldiers Angels Living Legends Team

If you check out  icasualties.org  ,you'll see that there were 21 Fallen Heroes this past week.  The latest soldier was killed only this morning, that name has not been released yet. 

The Living Legends Team has been working diligently to gather information about each of the  Fallen Heroes whose names were previously released by the  DOD , and send condolence cards to each of these families.

Our Team also supported the family of a Marine who was injured last September, and just passed away on April 2.

Two casualties that hit home for me were soldiers from my state of Virginia.

Fallen this past week from Virginia was:

Staff Sgt. Jeremiah E. McNeal, 23, of Norfolk, Va.

and you can read articles about him  here   and   here

and also fallen from Virginia was    Sgt. Jesse A. Ault, 28, of Dublin, Va.

and you can read about him  here   and   here

 

The fallen Marine who had been injured in Sept. was

 LCPL Cody Wanken of Hampton,IA

and I came across this link to a letter that Lcpl. Wanken had written home while he was deployed, which was printed at the time in an Iowa newspaper, and then re-posted at

this link   http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-55289.html

I think it is a Must Read. It brought me to tears.

 

I don't often express my own personal opinions on the war here, but it is in weeks like this past one, that I wholeheartedly agree with my friend Greta from Hooah Wife, who posted here   I want our soldiers home

It's been particularly difficult for me this past week to listen to the hearings in Congress with Gen.Petraeus, and to hear President Bush announce that he will suspend troop withdrawals this summer.

While I want to be"supportive of the mission", and I have heard all the arguments that there are "less causualties in this war compared to previous wars",etc?

All I know is that, as a volunteer with some caring and compassionate Angels on the Living Legends Team who reach out to try and send some comfort to grieving families of the Fallen......there are 20 families grieving this past week alone...soon to be 21.

And the names of those Fallen Heroes are:

Specialist Matthew T. Morris

Captain Ulises Burgos-Cruz

Major Stuart A. Wolfer

Colonel Stephen K. Scott

Private 1st Class Shane D. Penley

Staff Sergeant Emanuel Pickett

Staff Sergeant Jeremiah E. McNeal

Sergeant Richard A. Vaughn

Specialist Jason C. Kazarick

Sergeant Michael T. Lilly

Sergeant Timothy M. Smith

Major Mark E. Rosenberg

Staff Sergeant Jeffery L. Hartley

Specialist Jacob J. Fairbanks

Sergeant Shaun P. Tousha

Sergeant Jesse A. Ault

Specialist Jeremiah C. Hughes

Technical Sergeant Anthony L. Capra

and  Lcpl. Cody Wanken

(There are two names of Fallen Heroes that have not yet been released by the DOD.)

My prayers are with each of these grieving families. Please remember these families, and the families of all the 4,000 + fallen heroes.

And please keep those still serving in your thoughts and prayers, also.