Opinion & Comment

Personal Sacrifice Is Great For These Soldiers

By BEN GARRETT, Editor

Jason McClarty is a soldier from Lafayette, Tennessee. A member of the support squadron of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, the same squadron that includes troops from Scott County, Jason will be deployed to Iraq sometime within the next two weeks, and may have departed for the Middle East by the time this reaches print.

On hand at Thursday's send-off ceremony for the 278th RCT at Camp Shelby, Mississippi were Jason's children . . . all five of them. Four daughters and a son, all between the ages of five and 12, filled an entire row of the bleachers on Camp Shelby's parade field. Most of them were too young to realize the magnitude of what their father is about to undertake. But Mrs. McClarty must realize it fully. While her husband is fighting terrorists half a world away, she will be left at home with five children to care for single-handedly. The task must be both daunting and frightening.

Jason McClarty's story is no different than that of hundreds of troops who are set to depart for the Middle East alongside him. On Camp Shelby's parade field following Thursay's ceremony, as families greeted their soldiers, hundreds of the 278th's members could be seen pushing a baby stroller, holding toddlers or newborns in their arms, or standing with their arms around visibly-expectant wives.

And that magnifies the sacrifices these troops are making. These guardsmen aren't just leaving behind a job and home; they're living behind their families. Some will miss the births of their children. Some will miss the first steps of their sons and daughters, or their children's first words. Thanksgiving and Christmas will be spent in a war-torn country far from home while their families try their very best to celebrate without them, all the while worrying for their safety.

This scene is no different than that of the millions of Americans who have left their homes before to fight in foreign wars. But seeing it first-hand is an eye-opening testament of the sacrifices they make.

It is said that the Iraqi conflict will result in a democracy; a freedom for those who have lived their lives without knowing the meaning of the word. And because America's armed forces are the best in the world, and our nation's resolve is second to none, that democracy will undoubtedly emerge from the war-ravaged streets of Baghdad and Fallujah. A people oppressed will become a people free.

But will they ever realize the sacrifices made by American men and women to bring about that freedom? Will they appreciate what our soldiers are doing for them?

The Iraqi war is no longer about removing a dictatorship; we have done that. it is no longer about weapons of mass destruction. It is now about rebuilding the country and ridding it of the insurgents who would like nothing better than to place their own stranglehold on its people in the absence of Saddam Hussein's regime.

America could have pulled out and brought our troops home after we overthrew the Iraqi government and made reasonably sure that biological and chemical weapons were not present. But we did not. As the brightest beacon for freedom in this world, our desire and resolve to bring the freedom we enjoy to another people has kept our forces in Iraq. And because of that, more of our men and women have died since the fall of the Iraqi dictatorship, in the effort to bring about peace in the country, than died in the so-called full-scale combat.

I hope the Iraqi people realize that the sacrifices being made by thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of family members back home so that they might be free. I don't think they will ever realize the debt of gratitude they owe these soldiers. But if they could see Jason McClarty, with his five children huddled around him as he prepared to say goodbye on a rain-soaked parade field in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, maybe they could begin to understand.