Line of Sight

Toast to those lost

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Mementos left at the base of one of the panels at the Ft. Carson Mountain Post Global War on Terrorism Fallen Soldiers Memorial.

Mementos left at the base of one of the panels at the Ft. Carson Mountain Post Global War on Terrorism Fallen Soldiers Memorial.

The Service

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Members of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry regiment pause at a memorial service at FOB Ramrod for Pfc. Brian Bates, 20, from Gretna, La. He was killed in Kandahar last week by an IED while driving a Stryker on patrol.

50 Years

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A wreath was laid at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for MAJ Dale R. Buis and MSG Chester M Ovnand, killed 50 years ago today, becoming the first U.S. casualties in the Vietnam War.  Part of a military advisors group, Buis and Ovnand were killed by Vietcong guerrillas in Bien Hoa while watching a movie in the mess hall.  Today they are the first names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial under the year 1959.

Obama and Elie Weisel

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President Obama and Elie Weisel speak at a Holocaust memorial event in the Capitol…. I’ve heard some funny stories about how happy embassy and aid workers are when they see the Marines arrive to evacuate them from tricky situations – Weisel talked about they joy and gratitude he has for the U.S. military liberating him from a death camp. Several orders of magnitude, eh?

4,048 stars = 404,800 humans

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At the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C., a park ranger explained the wall of stars: “Each of the 4,048 stars represents 100 American service members killed in action.” There’s not enough space to inscribe every name.

(Maybe its just me, or my imagination, but standing in front of these stars at the edge of a small pool of water, I hear what sounds like polite, continuous applause. I don’t know if this sound is intentional, but it is definitely one place I like to bring visitors to see if they can hear it, too.)