Haunted by a Soldier's Face by Jimmy Breslin

[acmavm]

February 21, 2004, 8:15 PM EST

http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/nyc-bres0222,0,4618601.column?coll=ny-news-columnists

<snip>

She didn't know his name. It was on a tag someplace and it had already been logged in. They did that the moment they brought the dead soldier off the plane from Iraq and into the morgue at Dover Air Force Base. The body had to pass through a metal detector in case there was some ordnance still there.

He had been taken right from the dirt of Iraq and flown here.

<snip>

He had no head. Oh, there was part of his head still there, on the left side. Just a part. No more.

The left eye was there, wide open. The startled left eye.

"It was looking out as if to say, 'What happened?'" she was saying yesterday. "I don't think he believed that he was dead."

-MORE-

[madmax]

1. Breslin can rip my heart out with words.

:cry:

[glitch]

2. Dear God

Thanks for sharing this one. Jimmy Breslin is an amazing writer. I am passing this around.

[robertarctor]

3. That's a stunning column.

Drip ... drip ... drip ...

[SharonAnn]

4. Thank you for posting this. What a tragedy this is, I can't

believe we've gone and created a "Vietnam" when we should have known better.

[Demonaut]

5. It hurts

bush his cadre are the only ones to blame