jhungary
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2012
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When you wear your uniform out and head to a bar, people will ask you, were you in [Insert War here] in my case, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Then people will ask all sort of things, the question that asked most frequently is have you kill anyone. Or how is it over there? Ok, all sort's done, move on.
But then there were one time, a soldier walk in a bar in full dress Class A uniform. Which normally considered strange as Dress Green only get you 10-30 precents (Depend on duty)of the time you are in the Army, rest of your time you wear your PT gear or ACU........
Start talking to this Captain, wearing full class A on a Friday Afternoon.
"What's your deal" I asked?
"Just got back from CNS duty" That officer said, only looking at his drink
CNS - Casualty Notification Service, which is what soldier do when there are soldier who is "Lost with the organisation" Either that was deceased, beleaguered, captured, detained, ill, interned or missing. When a CNO team notify a soldier NOK, they usually go in in pairs. Sometime they brought in a Chaplin or some sort to fill the religious need.
"How hard can that be?" I asked myself, then
"Who's the unlucky bastard this time?" I ask him
He looked at me, as if he saw a ghost, then he muttered
"A sergeant, got it with IED" He said
"Must be tough, eh" I said, then I leave him alone.
I see people who locked in a fire fight for days, with the face full of "Blanks" but this guy, he have the most unbelievable "Blank" on his face, like as if he is soulless, so I just leave this poor bastard alone.
a few months had past (I think nearly a year) This time, I got to do these kind of Angle of Death things.
A soldier from our unit had been killed in Iraq by small arms fire. His PNOK is listed as his wife (That's the top of the totem pole actually) but the catch is, his wife is Chinese and do not speak English.
I got the call in my office, saying some Major higher up wanted to see me. OK, walked in his room, knocked, and saluted. He pass me a folder called "Casualty Notification Guideline" as told me to deal with it.
Ok, found the guy, called "Nathan" he is in charge with the CNO. He asked someone who can speak Chinese in case we need a translator, that's where I came in. I was never train with this kind of thing, a lot of question popped up in my mind, I don't want to ask tho, as if I am intruding on something.
OK, drove to the Base Housing where the wife are supposedly living. Turn out she has move back with his parent which is 3 states away. Can't stand the loneliness, the neighbour says. Ok, Nathan said, now we can dump the case to Georgia and let them deal with it, or we can travel to Georgia and tell them ourselves. Which one do you prefer, he asked.
I said "Let's do this". Then we hop on the car and start driving. We started the things at 1400 and drove across 3 states and got there at 2300 plus change. No way we are going to knock on their door at the middle of the night, we rent a motel, sleep there, all 3 of us.
In the morning, we discuss our approach during breakfast, Nathan think it's no good to go around there and tell them in the morning. So we go in after lunch instead.
After lunch, we drove to the woman place's. Park our car a block down the street. start walking to the building, stopped in front of the door, check our Class A, make right with our beret and Nathan, Nathan then turn to me and ask me how to pronounce the woman's first name. Told him twice then he start knocking.
"Is there a Mui Gonzales here?" Nathan said.
"She's inside" The older guy answer, assume he is the father of the deceased.
"Come in" he said, I think he know what's happening as I think I saw tear start drifting off of his face, a few rumbling later. A woman show up to meet us, I think she too knows what was going on.
"Can you speak English, Ma'am" Nathan asked
"A little bit" The woman said fighting off tears. Nathan look at me with this little nod
"The secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regrets that your husband, Private First Class Ramon Gonzales was killed by small arms fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, yesterday 2205local time. He was in a 8 man patrol team when his unit was ambush, I cannot specifically tell you the detail but he died immediately of his wound. The secretary of the Army extends his deepest sympathy to you and your family in this tragic lost."
Meanwhile he is speaking his speak, I try my best to translate Nate's word into Mandarin and all I can see is the woman look back and forth between me and Nate.
"Is there anything I can do for you or you want me to call anyone?" Nathan said, then I translate them into Chinese
"A Casualty Assistance Office will be in touch should you require any help" Nathan said, and I translate again.
"I am terrible sorry for your lost, ma'am"
Then we step out of the house. and Drive our car back to the Base.
The whole trip, 10 hours, no word. As we are not to read from a card, the "Speech" is remembered and you are require to spell it out by heart. That speech, til today, I still remember, word by word.
And now I know, what it meant to them. Imagine you have to break the heart of some poor family day by day and tell them they are never going to see their son, daughter, husband or wife again, and come back and break another family heart, DAY BY DAY. And it does not stop in New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I cried, first time for many year that night in the car. And I would be probably never want to do this again, as this job, is worse then anything war can throw at me.
Name and place are change to give respect to the death soldier. But the rest of the information are essentially correct
Then people will ask all sort of things, the question that asked most frequently is have you kill anyone. Or how is it over there? Ok, all sort's done, move on.
But then there were one time, a soldier walk in a bar in full dress Class A uniform. Which normally considered strange as Dress Green only get you 10-30 precents (Depend on duty)of the time you are in the Army, rest of your time you wear your PT gear or ACU........
Start talking to this Captain, wearing full class A on a Friday Afternoon.
"What's your deal" I asked?
"Just got back from CNS duty" That officer said, only looking at his drink
CNS - Casualty Notification Service, which is what soldier do when there are soldier who is "Lost with the organisation" Either that was deceased, beleaguered, captured, detained, ill, interned or missing. When a CNO team notify a soldier NOK, they usually go in in pairs. Sometime they brought in a Chaplin or some sort to fill the religious need.
"How hard can that be?" I asked myself, then
"Who's the unlucky bastard this time?" I ask him
He looked at me, as if he saw a ghost, then he muttered
"A sergeant, got it with IED" He said
"Must be tough, eh" I said, then I leave him alone.
I see people who locked in a fire fight for days, with the face full of "Blanks" but this guy, he have the most unbelievable "Blank" on his face, like as if he is soulless, so I just leave this poor bastard alone.
a few months had past (I think nearly a year) This time, I got to do these kind of Angle of Death things.
A soldier from our unit had been killed in Iraq by small arms fire. His PNOK is listed as his wife (That's the top of the totem pole actually) but the catch is, his wife is Chinese and do not speak English.
I got the call in my office, saying some Major higher up wanted to see me. OK, walked in his room, knocked, and saluted. He pass me a folder called "Casualty Notification Guideline" as told me to deal with it.
Ok, found the guy, called "Nathan" he is in charge with the CNO. He asked someone who can speak Chinese in case we need a translator, that's where I came in. I was never train with this kind of thing, a lot of question popped up in my mind, I don't want to ask tho, as if I am intruding on something.
OK, drove to the Base Housing where the wife are supposedly living. Turn out she has move back with his parent which is 3 states away. Can't stand the loneliness, the neighbour says. Ok, Nathan said, now we can dump the case to Georgia and let them deal with it, or we can travel to Georgia and tell them ourselves. Which one do you prefer, he asked.
I said "Let's do this". Then we hop on the car and start driving. We started the things at 1400 and drove across 3 states and got there at 2300 plus change. No way we are going to knock on their door at the middle of the night, we rent a motel, sleep there, all 3 of us.
In the morning, we discuss our approach during breakfast, Nathan think it's no good to go around there and tell them in the morning. So we go in after lunch instead.
After lunch, we drove to the woman place's. Park our car a block down the street. start walking to the building, stopped in front of the door, check our Class A, make right with our beret and Nathan, Nathan then turn to me and ask me how to pronounce the woman's first name. Told him twice then he start knocking.
"Is there a Mui Gonzales here?" Nathan said.
"She's inside" The older guy answer, assume he is the father of the deceased.
"Come in" he said, I think he know what's happening as I think I saw tear start drifting off of his face, a few rumbling later. A woman show up to meet us, I think she too knows what was going on.
"Can you speak English, Ma'am" Nathan asked
"A little bit" The woman said fighting off tears. Nathan look at me with this little nod
"The secretary of the Army has asked me to express his deep regrets that your husband, Private First Class Ramon Gonzales was killed by small arms fire in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, yesterday 2205local time. He was in a 8 man patrol team when his unit was ambush, I cannot specifically tell you the detail but he died immediately of his wound. The secretary of the Army extends his deepest sympathy to you and your family in this tragic lost."
Meanwhile he is speaking his speak, I try my best to translate Nate's word into Mandarin and all I can see is the woman look back and forth between me and Nate.
"Is there anything I can do for you or you want me to call anyone?" Nathan said, then I translate them into Chinese
"A Casualty Assistance Office will be in touch should you require any help" Nathan said, and I translate again.
"I am terrible sorry for your lost, ma'am"
Then we step out of the house. and Drive our car back to the Base.
The whole trip, 10 hours, no word. As we are not to read from a card, the "Speech" is remembered and you are require to spell it out by heart. That speech, til today, I still remember, word by word.
And now I know, what it meant to them. Imagine you have to break the heart of some poor family day by day and tell them they are never going to see their son, daughter, husband or wife again, and come back and break another family heart, DAY BY DAY. And it does not stop in New Years, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I cried, first time for many year that night in the car. And I would be probably never want to do this again, as this job, is worse then anything war can throw at me.
Name and place are change to give respect to the death soldier. But the rest of the information are essentially correct
