I rarely tackle more than one subject in a single blog posting. Today is an exception.
Corporal Rachael Hugo
Army Specialist Rachael Hugo (promoted posthumously to Corporal) was laid to rest today in Monona, Wisconsin. She died in combat Friday, October 5, 2007. Corporal Hugo, was a combat medic with the Army Reserve, she was killed by a bomb while under small arms fire during combat operations in Bayji, Iraq.
I do not normally mention the funerals of fallen soldiers as I post Wisconsin soldiers who have died in weekly commemorations, yet this soldier's death stung harder.
My combat engineer unit maintained helicopter landing zones near the Iron Curtain in Germany. Many of the helicopters were medevac units. Years later I served as a medic in rural Wisconsin for 10 years. While you help others in an emergency, or as in Rachael's case combat, your own risk then doubles.
Corporal Hugo, I hope you are somewhere where your talents are appreciated. May you and the God of your choosing continue your work in spirit here on earth. I have no words that are remotely adequate for your sacrifice.
Date with fate - post 9
Another run in with fate with the old 1966 Fairlane 500. By the time I was a senior in high school I had gotten too comfortable with the Fairlane. It had a clutch and a stick shifter on the steering column. On the six mile trip from school to the farm I would take the back roads - actually that is all there was. When there was not sports practice, which was not too often with me as I dabbled in many high school sports, I would beat it home as there was always something to do around the farm. There was never a boring day.
One day I was bounding down the road that connected two main drags. I was digging for something on the passenger side floor - who knows what. The road had gone from a well kept short cut secret to a rather well traveled route because a farmer had build a mobile home park on the corner of his farm. It was big as well as popular. Mobile home parks were frowned upon in our area and if one did open, it got filled quick with people just trying to make a life the best they could. In the three short years I had been driving it went from a desolate trek to a well traveled road. But, it was still a shoulderless, winding, bumpy, farm road.
Why I looked up, to this day I do not know. Just a hundred yards from me was a poor young woman that just came over a knoll heading straight for me as I had entered her lane. I jerked the old cumbersome Fairlane steering wheel and I saw her disgusted look as we passed just inches apart. Why I did not plow into her I do not know. Had she been the type to be aggressive I am sure anyone else would have planted both middle fingers my way as we passed. She shook her head like a disgusted older sister and just kept on going.
Turkish parliament votes - military has green light to attack Iraq
The Turkish parliament voted today to allow the Turkish military to attack Northern Iraq to engage Kurdish rebels that hide in the mountains after attacking Turkey.
This could escalate into a quagmire. The Kurdish Regional Army of Iraq (Pesmerga) have no sense of humor. They are not a militia. The Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq is talking up diplomacy. Stay tuned - hold on to your hats! Americans sleep on...
This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Ranger Specialist Robert J. Cook, 24. He was killed in an accidental explosion at a weapons cache west of Ghazni, Afghanistan, near the village of Dege Hendu, about 90 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul on January 29, 2004. Specialist Cook was Wisconsin's first soldier to die in the Afghanistan War. Specialist Cook was sent to Afghanistan in August of 2003. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Robert graduated from Sun Prairie High School in 1997. Cook played football and was a defensive tackle when the team went to the state championship in 1995 and won the only state football championship for Sun Prairie. After high school Robert spent three years working in construction and carpentry. Cook joined the Army in 2000. His first duty station was in New York. He was assigned to Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. Robert is survived by his mother Sandra Selheim and a sister.
3,829 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
445 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
28,276 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,652 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
81 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
5 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
118 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
