"Just do me one big favor, ok?" he wrote.
"Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with
you."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604A.shtml
To Whom it May Concern
By Brooke M. Campbell
t r u t h o u t | Letter
Friday 03 September 2004
Sgt. Campbell requested that, if something happened to him, his family
place this photo on his coffin.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090604A.shtml
To Whom it May Concern,
I found out that my brother, Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell, was dead
during a graduate seminar at Emory University on April 29, 2004.
Immediately after a uniformed officer knocked at my mother's door to
deliver the message that broke her heart, she called me on my cell
phone.
She could say nothing but "He's gone."
I could say nothing but "No."
Over and over again we chanted this refrain to each other over the
phone as I made my way across the country to hold her as she wept.
I had made the very same trip in February, cutting classes to spend my
brother's two weeks' leave from Baghdad with him.
Little did I know then that the next time I saw him would be at
Arlington National Cemetery.
During those days in February, my brother shared with me his fear, his
disillusionment, and his anger.
"We had all been led to believe that Iraq posed a serious threat to
America as well as its surrounding nations," he said.
"We invaded expecting to find weapons of mass destruction and a much
more prepared and well-trained Republican Guard waiting for us. It is
now a year later, and alas, no weapons of mass destruction or any
other real threat, for that matter."
Ryan was scheduled to complete his one-year assignment to Iraq on
April 25.
But on April 11, he emailed me to let me know not to expect him in
Atlanta for a May visit, because his tour of duty had been
involuntarily extended.
"Just do me one big favor, ok?" he wrote.
"Don't vote for Bush. No. Just don't do it. I would not be happy with
you."
Last night, I listened to George W. Bush's live, televised speech at
the Republican National Convention.
He spoke to me and my family when he announced, "I have met with
parents and wives and husbands who have received a folded flag, and
said a final goodbye to a soldier they loved.
I am awed that so many have used those meetings to say that I am in
their prayers and to offer encouragement to me.
Where does strength like that come from?
How can people so burdened with sorrow also feel such pride?
It is because they know their loved one was last seen doing good.
Because they know that liberty was precious to the one they lost.
And in those military families, I have seen the character of a great
nation: decent, and idealistic, and strong."
This is my reply:
Mr. President, I know that you probably still "don't do body counts,"
so you may not know that almost one thousand U.S. troops have died
doing what you told them they had to do to protect America.
Ryan was Number 832.
Liberty was, indeed, precious to the one I lost-- so precious that he
would rather have gone to prison than back to Iraq in February.
Like you, I don't know where the strength for "such pride" on the part
of people "so burdened with sorrow" comes from; maybe I spent it all
holding my mother as she wept.
I last saw my loved one at the Kansas City airport, staring after me
as I walked away.
I could see April 29 written on his sad, sand-chapped and sunburned
face.
I could see that he desperately wanted to believe that if he died, it
would be while "doing good," as you put it.
He wanted us to be able to be proud of him.
Mr. President, you gave me and my mother a folded flag instead of the
beautiful boy who called us "Moms" and "Brookster."
But worse than that, you sold my little brother a bill of goods.
Not only did you cheat him of a long meaningful life, but you cheated
him of a meaningful death.
You are in my prayers, Mr. President, because I think that you need
them more than anyone on the face of the planet.
But you will never get my vote.
So to whom it may concern:
Don't vote for Bush.
No.
Just don't do it.
I would not be happy with you.
Sincerely,
Brooke M. Campbell
Atlanta, GA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kirksville, Missouri - A soldier from northeast Missouri was among
eight killed April 29, 2004, in a car bombing in Iraq, the U.S.
Department of Defense said Monday.
Sergeant Ryan M. Campbell, 25, of Kirksville, was a member of the
Army's 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored
Division.
The soldiers were removing roadside bombs from a highway south of
Baghdad. Campbell's mother, Mary Ann MacCombie of Kirksville, said the
unit intercepted a station wagon crammed with 500 pounds of
ammunition, and the driver detonated an explosive.
Campbell was stationed in Germany before he was sent to Iraq.
He originally had been expected to return to the United States in
April, but his duty in Iraq was extended three months.
"He's supposed to be home now," said MacCombie, recalling that her son
called twice Wednesday, a day before he died.
"His last words were, 'I'll be back in July.'"
Campbell joined the National Guard along with his best friend, Brendan
McEvoy, several years ago.
The pair enlisted in the Army in February 2002.
MacCombie said Campbell was an avid outdoorsman and a talented drummer
who tried to assemble a band during his time in Germany.
He graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville and planned to
attend graduate school after completing his military service.
A memorial service will be Friday at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church
in Kirksville.
A specific time has not been set.
Campbell will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Other soldiers killed in the attack were Staff Sergeant Esau G.
Patterson Jr., 25, of Ridgeland, South Carolina; Staff Sergeant
Jeffrey F. Dayton, 27, of Caledonia, Mississippi; Specialist James L.
Beckstrand, 27, of Escondido, California; Specialist Justin B.
Schmidt, 23, of Bradenton, Florida; Private First Class Ryan E. Reed,
20, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Private First Class Norman Darling,
29, of Middleboro, Massachusetts; and Private First Class Jeremy
Ricardo Ewing, 22, of Miami, Florida.
Campbell, Ryan Montgomery
SGT US Army
Veteran Service Dates: February
2002 - April 2004
Date of Birth: 11/07/1978
Date of Death: 04/29/2004
Date of Internment: 05/11/2004
Buried at: Section 60 Site 7979 - Arlington National Cemetery
Harry
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