What a Soldier is.....

Today President Bush presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to the parents of PFC Ross Andrew McGinnis. PFC McGinnis became the 2nd soldier in the Global War on Terror to be awarded our highest medal as a Nation to honor a Soldier, Sailor, Airmen, or Marine's courage and sacrifice under fire. His actions and his sacrifice are in absolute accordance with the highest of ideals of honor, courage, and commitment to something greater then yourself. Below my post is the link to both the NY Times article and the Arlington National Cemetery Website article about Ross.

From the NY Times Article:

Private McGinnis, of Knox, Pa., was killed in a Baghdad neighborhood on Dec. 4, 2006, when a grenade was thrown into the gunner’s hatch of the Humvee in which he was riding. Mr. Bush noted that Private McGinnis had enough time to jump out and save himself but instead dropped into the hatch and covered the grenade with his own body, absorbing the fragments. He was killed instantly. All four of his fellow soldiers were saved.

“When Ross McGinnis was in kindergarten,” Mr. Bush said, “the teacher asked him to draw a picture of what he wanted to be when he grew up. He drew a soldier. Four men are alive because this soldier embodied our Army values and gave his life.”

First I would like to extend my sincerest and utmost condolences to his Mother, and Father, and the rest of his family. To the men of his platoon, company and battalion also, please accept my sincerest condolences. From everything I have read about Ross he was an absolutely incredible soldier, friend, and person and I know how you must miss him.

As I was reading about Ross though I realized that everything I was reading and thinking about was exactly what I had been trying to express for the last week. A soldier is someone who has dedicated his life to something bigger then himself. He has accepted that he places the ideals and principles of our Nation above his own personal needs and wants. He places the good of his fellow soldiers above his own, and will lay down his own life to save them. He walks the line everyday in a foreign land for both the good of his country and for the people of that nation that have just begun to taste what freedom means.

All of the articles that I had been trying to write and talk about tied back to this; the ones that really got me angry (Code Pink, Stephen King), to the ones that I was very proud and sad to write (Three days in November and What it means to be an NCO). Reading about Ross summed up everything I had been trying to express. We do what we do because we love our country, because of the bond between soldiers, and to protect others that yet can not protect themselves.

In all of these ways PFC Ross Andrew McGinnis epitomized what it means to be a soldier. He showed us what our highest standards and ideals look like when they are personified, and he showed us again that there is no greater love then to lay down your life for your brothers.

PFC Ross Andrew McGinnis I salute you.

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the sun be always at your back,

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

God Bless America

Bryan

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ramcginnis.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/washington/02cnd-medal.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/washington/03medal.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(All pictures are from the NY Times Web Article)

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