02/02/2004 Archived Entry: "Duty and Honor"

I live in a fairly conservative state, so I often hear the same types of sentiments expressed, over and over again, about my brother--unreserved thanks. However, this site is seen by people all over the world, and through e-mail I see a different sentiment that I've not had said to me in person. Here are a pair of comments plucked from my inbox that are typical of this:

I'm so sorry about your loss--it's painful to see so many good young soldiers die so pointlessly in this needless, illegal war.

Your brother's death saddens us, and lessens us as a country. It is shameful that his life was wasted by the lying fool in the Oval Office in his grab for oil!

It depresses me that people are willing to use even a soldier's death as an opportunity to pontificate, even a little bit, about their political views. Here's a hint: when expressing sympathy to a relation of a recently-deceased person, including in your sympathy statement the notion that the deceased's deceasment was needless, worthless, or otherwise ignoble is not exactly the most sensitive thing in the world.

I'm not trying to tell people that I only want to hear good things said about my brother; I'm just saying that if you've a bone to pick with the president--and many people seem to have just such a bone--the death of my brother isn't the most appropriate topic with which to tie it.

Since the dead cannot speak, I will speak for my brother and explain his stance on the war, the president, and the duty of a soldier. To wit:

My brother joined the military in July of 2002, well before there was any overt military action. He joined not with the intention of Going To Iraq; rather, he joined because in the wake of the September 11 attacks, he felt called to serve. He scored in the 97th percentile on his ASVAB, but chose the Infantry because he felt he was needed there.

He did not join because of bloodthirst, anger, or any kind of agenda of rage; he did not join because he had a political agenda to push or a candidate to endorse. If anything, he felt that the military would give him an opportunity to serve something far greater than himself, and in that, an opportunity to find himself.

When it became clear that we were going to war not just against the nebulous forces of "terrorism" but with the very real and concrete country of Iraq, he did not shirk from his training or try to wash out. He went directly from AIT to Airborne school, and from there directly to Kuwait, and he was there from the moment Operation Iraqi Freedom started to the moment of his death on 07 Dec 03. He made a difficult choice signing up, in that he chose to forsake a life of comfort and leisure (as much comfort and leisure as the average college freshman has, anyway) for the hard life of a soldier. He told us many stories about days spent without sleep, receiving only one MRE per day because they'd outstripped their supply lines in their relentless push across the desert, and about being terrified of death. Before the battle at An-Najaf, his company's captain told the men that it was likely many of them would be killed in the firefight; fortunately, few were, but the terror was there.

My brother saw all the war and horror that anyone in a combat zone can see. He saw bodies torn apart, men shredded by gunfire, screaming women clutching dead children, buildings collapsing atop people, and other things that sane people should never have to see. He saw some of his friends die, and he faced his own fear and emerged from the other side. He earned his CIB--Combat Infantryman's Badge--and they don't hand those out just because you've been shot at.

When we asked him why he was doing it, his answer was always the same: "I want to do this because I know I am good at it, and I do it so that someone else doesn't have to."

He believed in the mission--to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein's thumb and to remove the terrorist elements from Iraq. Say what you want about the ulterior political motives and the grab for oil and whatever else you want to say--nowhere in my brother's objectives was any of that mentioned. He and the rest of the 101st Airborne accomplished their objective admirably. He believed in this mission, he believed in his chain of command, he believed in his fellow soldiers, and he believed his commander-in-chief. More than that, he performed as ordered because it was the right thing to do.

So, no one can say that my brother's death was pointless, or that he died as a pawn in someone else's power game, or anything silly like that. SPC Ray Joseph Hutchinson answered when his country called, followed and believed in his orders, and met his death honorably, on his feet with his weapon in his hand. No one can ask for anything nobler.

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