Another Gold Star Mother

[rateyes]

At age 17, Marcus Futrell was too young to join the National Guard without his mother's signature, so she signed him in. He hoped his military stint would net him the funds to further his education.

Instead, his mother got a visit Sunday that every military relative dreads: two officers on her front step, delivering the news that her son, now 20, would not be coming home.

<snip>

"I have a lot of questions about the war," she said. "This is all senseless. They could have been sent home months ago. Normally, you would think of a National Guard unit being national, not international."

Cheryl Futrell said her son's unit was better suited to respond to Hurricane Katrina than fight in Iraq. "If I had the slightest concern that this was where he would be headed in a couple of years after he signed up, I would have discouraged him. I wouldn't have signed," she said.

<snip>

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/13354555.htm

:cry:

[FreedomAngel82]

1. So sad and so young

:cry:

[SheilaT]

2. I have two sons,

ages 22 and 18, and it breaks my heart every day that young men exactly their age are dying for no good reason whatsoever.

Back at the very beginning of the current Iraq war there was a photo of a mother walking away from her son's grave, holding the flag that had been draped on his coffin. The grief that was so apparent in the still photo still haunts me.