Memorial Day brings up memories of a recent past
I spent Memorial Day holiday watching old war movies, Memorial Day celebrations, and reading Mr. Joe Johnson’s account of sacrifices and contributions by our country’s women to the war effort. This caused me to travel back to a day that gave me some perspective of the turmoil experienced by Gold Star Mothers as long as there have been wars.
In September 2010, my soldier son came home from Afghanistan for a mid-tour two-week break. He left Columbus in late September to join his unit in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, for operation Dragon Strike, a major offensive to attempt to retake the province.
October 22, 2010, was a nice day; I was off work, and my husband had arrived home early. At approximately 4 pm my husband answered a telephone call from the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. The caller asked if this was the residence of my son and confirmed he was speaking to his father. We were told our son had been injured and was being transported to a medical facility. Next he asked to verify our street address. We had received a few telephone calls in the past from a support group consisting of wives of deployed soldiers. Whenever there was a casualty they would call the next of kin of the deployed soldiers to let them know their solider was not the casualty. The next of kin of the unfortunate casualty was notified in person. This is what we referred to as a good/bad call.
My husband asked the caller why he needed to verify our address, as he did not suspect the man was composing a letter to us. He said he had no additional information, and we should hear something regarding our son within a couple of hours.
After my husband hung-up, he immediately called one of the wives at Fort Campbell to see if she had any information to share with us. All she knew was there had been multiple injuries, our son being one, and she was advised not to call us. She swore that was all the information she had and did not know why she was instructed not to contact us.
After about three hours we called the number in Washington and spoke with the man who originally called. He advised he had contacted the hospital and was told our son was not there. He had no explanation as to why or where our son was.
We were on the front porch after dark when a white van drove slowly down our road and continued on. In less than a minute the same van returned and slowly turned into our driveway. We live in a rural area and rarely does a visitor drop by after 9. It was very dark that evening. My husband immediately began approaching the van. A woman was on the passenger side but because of the darkness, couldn’t identify her. He began asking the woman repeatedly “What do you have to tell me?”…in what the woman later described as a very serious tone. A few steps closer my husband recognized the woman and her husband as neighbors. They had noticed us on the porch and decided to turn around and say hello.
We didn’t sleep much that night and at 8 the next morning we called the Department of Defense hoping for more information. Another voice answered our call and informed us they had checked with the hospital and our son was not there; no one knew where our son was.
It was around 3 p.m. when the phone rang and it was our son. He was in the Kandahar Air Base Hospital, having just arrived. His injuries were not life-threatening. A Medi-Vac had transported the injured to the hospital in Kandahar and this news was dispatched to the Department of Defense. The hostilities were so intense the helicopter pilots decided not to attempt an evacuation until the battle subsided; fortunately, the injured soldiers were stable and transported 24 hours later. This explained the confusion. In a life or death situation it is not a high priority to worry about any confusion state-side.
I did not lose a son, as tens of thousands of mothers have, and I have not experienced the grief suffered by these mothers. I do, however, have a better understanding of the situation fate has dealt them. I have an intense appreciation for our military men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and Memorial Day will never be just another day off.
Mary Hudson
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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