Money and Blood

Last year, I wrote a post about Army Staff Sgt. Courtney Hollinsworth, a career NCO from my hometown of Yonkers, New York. Assigned to the 4th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division out of Fort Riley, Kansas, Sgt. Hollinsworth was 26 and had spent nine years in the uniform in his country when he died during an attack by insurgents in Baghdad. He'd already done two tours - in Afghanistan and one in Iraq - when he was called up and did what soldiers always do: he went.

My post excoriated President Bush for his execrable and dishonest reasoning in a national speech, when he argued that this country has invested in the Iraq war and that the deaths of soldiers like Sgt. Hollinsworth argued for pursuing a “return on success.” In that speech, the President infamously promised to pass the war along to his successors: "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home,” he told the nation.

I'm as guilty as the next guy of focusing too much heat on this little intramural squabble of ours while the meatgrinder in Iraq turns on and on - but the great thing about a blog is the open channel of communications it can create, and the surprises it can hold in store for the even the most hard-boiled authors.

I got an email this week from Specialist Rangel, who served with Sgt. Hollinsworth on his first tour in Iraq. And with his permission, I'm sharing it with readers -  it's a soldier's-eye view of the political process that we all need to listen to from time to time:

Mr. Watson - I've read your work on SSG. Hollinsworth and greatly appreciate it. Hollinsworth was a personal friend of mine that I served my first tour in Iraq with and lived with him in Germany. Its sad to see these politicians bicker over human lives. Our service members have lost hope in our country. Most like me who joined to protect our great nation only fight for our brothers in arms now. America was built on bloodshed, now we must keep her alive and continue to bleed. It sucks, there is division within our country, money and blood. There are people who would do anything to attain the "American Dream" and there are those who go unnoticed that make the ultimate selfless sacrifice to give others that chance.

I don't have much to add - "money and blood" pretty much says it all. Sometimes it's good to get one right across the chops.

Comments

[blue girl]

Thanks for posting this, Tom.

Specialist Rangel, if you're reading this, thank you for your service and I'm sorry it seems that this country is filled with a bunch of boneheads. And I'm not excluding myself from that group.

[Judith]

There is a site called www.anysoldier.com where you can read some requests by our serving soldiers for things needed. A lot, not all, of the soldiers come from families that are not wealthy and do not send many things over so if you have some extra cash, they love things like new dvds or starbucks coffee or basic hygiene things. I have often seen requests for stick up room fresheners. (:-)) and note paper/cards to use to write home. If you are cash poor, they often request letters from kids as well. I have it on good authority that letters about goofy things kids do are well received.

Specialist Rangel - you can sign up and get things for others if your family already has you covered. My heartfelt wish for your safe return. I add my thanks to Blue Girl's.

[stephanie errebo-hollinsworth]

Dear Sir,

My name is Stephanie Errebo-Hollinsworth. I am the widow of the late SSG Courtney Hollinsworth. Surfing the net today I came across your blog spot and took the liberty of reading several items. Though my reasons for the following statements may initially be percieved as selfish I assure you there are many career NCOs and officers (such as my older brother Cpt. Aaron J. Becker) who would agree with me. He went green to gold after reaching SSG and is always thinking of his team in perpectives from both an enlisted as well as officer point of view. Makes perfect sense to me and he, at least in my biased opinion is a primary example of where Captains and junior officers need to be in terms of leading their soldiers. My personal belief is there needs to be a major change in the way of leadership among officers. My time in the Army though it was deeply motivating and what I hoped to have made into a career was in fact short on effective Officer leadership in terms of combat performance and engineering missions. The failure of officers to take a personal interest in their soldiers is creating an even larger division among troops. Too many times my ears have been left "bleeding" from the scorching stories of greed and poor performance. The below email excerpt from a close comrade of mine is from August of 2006 during their second deployment. Reading this excerpt, though it contains random profanity which was not necessary is nonetheless, support for my beliefs in change among the officer corps. Any thoughts or comments regarding this are welcome.

"The
>bottom line is that I am coming back here, its only a matter of when and
>with who. I am not trying to come back over here and go through the
>political bullshit that I have had to endure over here this time. I have
>had it with the "credit mongering" and fake ass leadership power grubbing.
>You would not believe how f-ing sorry some of these bastards are, I
>refuse to work in that climate anymore. I would rather have my little 12 man team
>of senior NCO's and junior Officers to work with, not some f-ing p***y ass
>m-fer trying to pad his OER by advertising every f-ing mission.
>This shit is disgusting man, the shit is like a f-ing video game to them.
>I am getting so tired of that shit, I am having a hard time understanding
>why people feel the need to try and stand on somebody elses pedestal instead
>of building there own shit. It's just not a good look at all, with all of
>the disloyalty and shit I have seen I am NOT TRUSTING a m-fer any
>more. "