Fort Worth dad deploying to country that took his son

[Barrett808]

Source: Fort Worth Star Telegram

Fort Worth dad deploying to country that took his son
By CHRIS VAUGHN

FORT WORTH — In a few days, Francisco Martinez will land in Iraq.

He is one of tens of thousands of men and women who, with various motivations, enlisted in the armed forces, knowing that they’d someday end up there.

For Martinez, Iraq is a kind of perdition, a receptacle for all the dark emotions, anguish and guilt that have buffeted him for the last three years.

When Martinez steps off the airplane, he will be in the country that took his only son, a 20-year-old skateboarder and budding graphic artist whose loss is felt every single day of his father’s life.

This deployment — in fact, his entire enlistment — is completely his doing. Nobody forced this on Martinez, except maybe the sniper who put one well-placed bullet in Spc. Francisco G. Martinez on March 20, 2005, in Ramadi.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/753969.html

[yourout]

1. I hope he finds the closure he seems to be seeking and gets home alive.

[frogcycle]

2. Spc. Francisco G. Martinez

[MilesColtrane]

3. I fear that what he'll find is that good people like his son have been dying...

...there for no reason.


I've seen many surviving family members telling TV interviewers how proud they were that their loved ones died protecting America's freedoms and fighting terrorists.

God help a man who is already at the breaking point when he learns the truth with his own eyes.

[Fumesucker]

4. Iraq didn't "take his son" .. Bush did n/t

[go west young man]

5. Your right it's a bullshit headline.

Bush, Cheney and the neocons were the reason his son died.

[ckramer]

10. That's correct

Dad would die soon for nothing in this meaningless war.

[tuckessee]

6. I pity the locals who cross paths with this revenge crazed old man. n/t

[kimmylavin]

7. That's what I was thinking.

Is revenge truly a good motivation in a situation like this?
I fear that his emotions might lead to unfortunate situations...

(Though his loss is unthinkable.)

[Coventina]

9. That was my thought as well.

He's a danger to himself, his fellow soldiers, and innocent Iraqi civilians.

[CBGLuthier]

8. They are wrong

THIS is the country that took his son.

America is to blame for this shit. As it was in Vietnam and Korea,

[Wcross]

11. Korea?

The United States was responsible for the invasion of South Korea? Do tell.

[daleo]

12. This doesn't seem healthy to me

"It has always shocked people, especially people who know Martinez well, that he signed up for the military after Paquito’s death and volunteered for Iraq. He has always opposed the Iraq invasion, even before Paquito was killed, and nothing has shaken him from his belief that the war is wrong.

In that, he and his ex-wife, Paquito’s mother, Carmen Hernandez, are alike. Hernandez is a leader in a Puerto Rican organization, Madres Contra La Guerra, or Mothers Against War.
...
He wonders how he’ll react when he lands in Iraq. In the months after Paquito’s death, he wanted nothing more than to go to Ramadi and see what his son saw when he was shot, to learn more about his final days, to exact revenge on someone.

But grieving and learning to cope with a loss isn’t a static thing, and those thoughts aren’t the same as they once were."

[superconnected]

13. I bet his son wouldn't have wanted this. This is sad. Now the dad gets to be

a target.

[Xenotime]

14. What an idiot. He obviously didn't learn from the loss of his son.

[lonestarnot]

15. Like that will do him any good. Sure won't help his kid.

[Megahurtz]

16. Uuuuuhh......

What Country took his son?

Sure, blame it on Iraq. :sarcasm: