Spring Break
Honoring Oregon Army National Guard
Issue date: 5/4/09 Section: Forum
Today, the men and women of the Oregon Army National Guard's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team will attend one of four mobilization ceremonies held across the state of Oregon to commemorate their final days at home before their deployment.
These troops - several thousand wives, husbands, daughters, sons, mothers and fathers - will first head to Camp Stewart, Ga., for 60 days of final training before they land in war-torn Iraq.
After seven years of war in the Middle East, many of these soldiers are veterans on at least their second deployment. For some, this deployment serves as just another day at the office. For many, it's the beginning of a journey down a road with an unforeseeable - and dangerous - future.
Many of them are new parents, newlyweds, newly graduated. Many of them are students. Many are putting their education on temporary suspension while they serve their country.
We see these people everyday, marching in formation through the quad or toward McAlexander Fieldhouse, working out at Dixon or chewing on their pens during class.
Some of us, turned sour and cynical by the last administration's handling of this war, may see these men and women in uniform and immediately feel disdain and even hatred for what they represent. Those of us who don't know someone in the service may mock their crew cuts or posture, or feel uneasy in their presence when they hold doors open for us..
While many of us hate the war, it is unacceptable to hate the warrior. These young people, our fellow classmates, full of promise and dreams of their own, have put all of that on hold for an idea so simple, so selfless that many of us can't wrap our minds around it.
Their nation called them, and they came. They came by the thousands, leaving families and careers behind to live a lonesome life, weapon in hand, in a remote place where death is at every corner, and where freedom is inevitably, undeniably at stake.
It seems cliché, and we cringe a little to use such a Bush buzzword as "freedom." But beyond political, moral and economic aspirations, isn't that all war is ever about?
As the troops of Oregon Army National Guard's 41st kiss their families goodbye and fly to Georgia for their last line of training before being planted into a war that many of us still don't fully understand, we encourage the campus community to recognize those members of the military that train and now lay in waiting to give their lives so that we might keep ours, and preserve that little seven-letter idea that this nation was built on.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com
These troops - several thousand wives, husbands, daughters, sons, mothers and fathers - will first head to Camp Stewart, Ga., for 60 days of final training before they land in war-torn Iraq.
After seven years of war in the Middle East, many of these soldiers are veterans on at least their second deployment. For some, this deployment serves as just another day at the office. For many, it's the beginning of a journey down a road with an unforeseeable - and dangerous - future.
Many of them are new parents, newlyweds, newly graduated. Many of them are students. Many are putting their education on temporary suspension while they serve their country.
We see these people everyday, marching in formation through the quad or toward McAlexander Fieldhouse, working out at Dixon or chewing on their pens during class.
Some of us, turned sour and cynical by the last administration's handling of this war, may see these men and women in uniform and immediately feel disdain and even hatred for what they represent. Those of us who don't know someone in the service may mock their crew cuts or posture, or feel uneasy in their presence when they hold doors open for us..
While many of us hate the war, it is unacceptable to hate the warrior. These young people, our fellow classmates, full of promise and dreams of their own, have put all of that on hold for an idea so simple, so selfless that many of us can't wrap our minds around it.
Their nation called them, and they came. They came by the thousands, leaving families and careers behind to live a lonesome life, weapon in hand, in a remote place where death is at every corner, and where freedom is inevitably, undeniably at stake.
It seems cliché, and we cringe a little to use such a Bush buzzword as "freedom." But beyond political, moral and economic aspirations, isn't that all war is ever about?
As the troops of Oregon Army National Guard's 41st kiss their families goodbye and fly to Georgia for their last line of training before being planted into a war that many of us still don't fully understand, we encourage the campus community to recognize those members of the military that train and now lay in waiting to give their lives so that we might keep ours, and preserve that little seven-letter idea that this nation was built on.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com
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