To LCpl. Graves

You are a doll! Moms can say that for the Internet world to read and get away with it.

LCpl. Graves, I think you must know a great deal about Aaron already. After all, you’re a Marine. And Aaron wouldn’t have it any other way but to be a Marine. Don’t worry though, you’ll know him (as well as his family) before we are ever through here. Steve will bring us the new news and I’ll fill in with the old news, memories that will always be reminiscent of "news" to me. I mean, think about it. A parent fills twenty-one years of talking and thinking about their child. It’s not natural to stop, no matter what. It becomes different, of course, but the need to share their personalities, their words and actions, to share them, well, it’s just not natural to suddenly quit.

So, from nearly the beginning to the earthly end of this phase of Aaron’s life, perhaps two documents will give you a general overall picture. I’ll continue to fill in bits and pieces as the days (and nights) advance. Aaron was fun. Aaron was loyal. These two adjective bookends hold many stories between and beyond.



Rescues
September 2003

I was tired of policing up after the male child that day. When I got up from the sofa to fetch him a box of juice, I asked my mother if she needed anything from the kitchen. She glanced up from the television, as it blared, and shook her head, or nodded—or something. Sometimes you have to know a person well enough to decipher their nods and shakes—their yeses. Their nos. I stood there for a moment and looked at the two generations I was sandwiched between. The elder crunched her ice. The younger sucked the corner of a quilt, bleached from use.

A pair of underwear lay dead in the middle of my pathway. I called out for the owner to retrieve their underpants. I didn’t turn around to watch his head shake from left to right, and it was by rumor only (from the ice-crunching Granny) that I heard him say, “Her will get them.”

I stopped on my way back from the kitchen, and rescued the Teenage Mutant Ninjas. Size three.



Throughout the course of his nineteen years, I was there as he volunteered and unvolunteered. He’d join, get the uniform, throw a few karate kicks, sprint several hundred meters, or catch a few footballs. He enlisted. Knowing full well he had a bad back. Courageous, perhaps. But then, he changed his mind. I asked him, couldn’t he at least join long enough to get the uniform?
But then, right away, I gave his back x-rays to the recruiter (a rescue of sorts). A year later, he went anyway.



The news blared on the television inside my apartment. Peace had resided there. But I couldn’t—no—I would not rescue myself from the blare.

Another Marine. It wasn’t the brass of the trumpet, or some such music (was the trumpet in my head?) that quickened my heart. It was that thing beating against the flagpole. What was it called? A chain? A flag raiser? There must be some noun for it.

Lance Corporal Gutierrez was the nineteen year old the tether (?) clanked for. His family earned their citizenship through the clanking of chain.

Later that night, walking, crossing back and forth through the neighborhood, expending energy to ease my mind, I wondered about the sort of mother Gutierrez might have had. I questioned flags, crosses and burdens. God. I wondered how much was enough and how many too many.
When I passed an elementary school, I heard the clank. The wind blew.

Many Marines shipped home.

When the wind is high in this West Texas city, and when I stop at the red light of a certain intersection (where the teenagers cross to school), I hear that same sound, as the flag waves, high in the dust.

**


Aaron’s Silver Star Citation is carried by his dad wherever he goes. Doug has the original as I have the original of his Purple Heart. We each have copies of the other and my copy of the Silver Star citation is in a frame. But my sister-in-law, Karen, turned me onto this: It is a Congressional Record of October 26, 2005. Karen came across it on the Internet. It’s a very lengthy document and we all know that the names of the fallen get used in various ways, some good, others, no, but I was impressed by this, and overall, you’ll get the gist of what Aaron did that day. What it does not say, is that my son died three times before he finally quit fighting.

Aaron always was hard-headed.

October 26, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD—HOUSE H9251


WAR ON TERROR—PROGRESS IN
IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under
the Speaker’s announced policy of January
4, 2005, the gentleman from California
(Mr. HUNTER) is recognized for 60
minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I
take the floor tonight with my colleagues
to talk about the values of
freedom and the men and women who
have, in very difficult places around
the world, but especially in the
warfighting theaters in Afghanistan
and Iraq, have fought to change the
world for freedom and, in doing so, to
secure the United States of America,
and to make us a more secure Nation,
and to accrue to the benefit of generations
over the next 10, 20 or 30 years.
I thought to talk a little bit about,
especially following the speakers who
have deplored our policy and condemned
our policy in Iraq and Afghanistan,
I thought it might be important
to remind ourselves why we are in
those theaters.
Madam Speaker, I brought tonight
some of the citations for gallantry, gallantry
that was carried out by American
soldiers and sailors and airmen
and marines in Iraq. I wanted to read
one of those. Then I wanted to talk
about what these soldiers and sailors
and airmen and marines have purchased
for the United States of America.
I want to talk about the value of
what they have done for our country.
This individual is Lance Corporal
Aaron C. Austin. This is a commendation,
a copy of a commendation, and a
posthumous Silver Star medal, the Nation’s
third highest award for valor
that was sent over to our office by the
Secretary of the Navy. It talks about
the incredible job that this young lance
corporal, one of the guys who makes
the Marine Corps work, that is an enlisted
man just a couple of ranks up
from private, but somebody who has
taken a leadership position, who leads
a fire team or a squad in places like
Fallujah or Ramadi.
For conspicuous gallantry and bravery
in action against the enemy as a
Machine Gun Team Leader, Company
E, 2d Battalion, 1st Marines, Regimental
Combat Team-1, 1st Marine Division,
I Marine Expeditionary Force.
That is a force that takes a very dangerous
difficult area west of Baghdad.
This great lance corporal, in an incredible
firefight in which they were
attacked from many different directions,
by dozens of rocket-propelled
grenades, RPGs, attacked by thousands
of machine gun rounds, and then assaulted
to within 20 meters of their position,
Lance Corporal Austin supported
his fellow marines, 16 of whom
were wounded in this firefight, ensured
that they receive medical treatment,
and then rallied the few remaining
members of his platoon and rushed to
the critical rooftop defensive position
to withstand the attack. I am quoting,
‘‘Braving withering enemy machine
gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire,
he reached the rooftop and prepared to
throw a hand grenade. As he moved
into a position from which to launch or
throw this grenade, enemy machine
gunfire struck Lance Corporal Austin
multiple times in the chest. Undaunted
by his injuries, and with heroic effort,
Lance Corporal Austin threw his grenade
which exploded amidst the enemy,
halting their furious attack.’’

He did that with the last efforts of
his body before he succumbed to that
mortal wound.
By his bold leadership, wise judgment
and complete dedication to duty, Lance
Corporal Austin reflected great credit
upon himself and upheld the highest
tradition of the Marine Corps and the
United States naval service. That is
what Gordon England, Secretary of the
Navy, said in this posthumous award of
the Silver Star medal to this lance corporal,
one of thousands of about 140,000
personnel who have been in the theater
consistently over the last several
years, accomplishing their mission in
Iraq.
So we know that this lance corporal
had incredible bravery, and I think following
especially the speakers who
have criticized this mission and said it
is without value, I think it is important
to talk about the value for this
Nation that this lance corporal and the
other hundreds of thousands of men
and women who wear the uniform of
the United States have delivered to us
through their service to our country.
To hear the speakers who have criticized
this mission talk, we somehow
have created a terrorist enemy and an
insurgent enemy that, because of our
own fault, attacks America, and the
way for us to hold off these attacks, to
dampen these attacks, is to be suppliant
and to do nothing and to be compliant,
and somehow we have agitated and
upset the enemy who otherwise would
not be intending to hurt Americans.
I am reminded that when those
planes hit the United States in 9/11, it
was following two major military operations
that this country undertook. Interestingly,
we took them both on behalf
of Muslim nations, protecting
them from neighboring nations, from
the attacks of neighboring nations.
One good question to ask the speakers
who just finished was what did the
United States do to deserve those attacks?
They further said, well, we did not
find any nuclear weapons, other weapons
of mass destruction, in Iraq, and,
Madam Speaker, let me tell you what
we did find and what the world found
and what history will reflect to the end
of time.
I keep in my desk drawer a picture of
Iraqi Kurdish mothers holding their babies
tightly against them as they lie
dead where they fell on the hillsides in
northern Iraq where Saddam Hussein
killed them with weapons of mass destruction;
that is, chemical weapons;
that is, poison gas; the only leader, to
my knowledge, since Adolf Hitler to
kill his own people with poison gas.
Every time I hear a speech about how
things would have been better if the
Americans did not show up, I pull that
picture out to remind myself that
things only get better when the Americans
show up, and sometimes it is lonely,
and sometimes it is tough, and
sometimes we only find a few of our
really toughest, closest allies like the
Aussies and the Brits standing side by
side with us. Although we now have
lots of people from those countries that
we liberated, which Donald Rumsfeld
refers to as the new Europe, people like
the Polish troops, who are securing,
taking part in the multinational organization,
securing the southern part of
Iraq.
Sometimes we have a difficult mission,
but it is very clear to us since
September 11 that if we do not change
the world, the world is going to change
us. For Americans who wonder why we
have not been attacked over the last
several years, why there has not been
another September 11, one answer is
that we have kept the bad guy off balance.
We pursued them in caves, in
mountains, at 12,000 feet high where
they thought we would never get to
them. We have gotten them in safe
houses where they thought they were
totally safe, and we have pursued them
to places where they never dreamed we
would be able to find them. Because of
that, we have kept them off balance,
and we have kept them in a position
where it has been very difficult for
them to organize another attack
against the United States.
The idea that we can somehow pull
back into the United States and not
pursue this war against terrorism and
everything will be fine is a very erroneous
idea. The men and women of our
Armed Forces who are undertaking
this very difficult mission in Iraq are
accomplishing the mission. The mission
is of great value because we have
discovered in this century that when
we have brought freedom to countries,
those countries have not been a threat
to the United States.
We are not worried about the nuclear
weapons in Great Britain’s arsenal because
Great Britain is a free nation. We
are not worried about the nuclear
weapons in the arsenals, for example,
of France or Israel because they are
free nations. But we are worried about
nuclear weapons and the possibility of
nuclear weapons being obtained by nations
which sponsor terrorism and
which are themselves tyrannical to
their people.
Every time we establish a nation
which is free, and it does not have to be
a perfect democracy or a perfect republic,
but a Nation that has a modicum of
freedom for its own people, and which
has a benign relationship, a good relationship
with the United States, and
which is not our enemy, and which will
not be a launching point for future terrorist
operations, then we have
achieved something of value that will
accrue to the benefit of future generations
of Americans. That is what our
troops are doing. Our troops are doing
something which is worthwhile and
which is good.
For my friends who read off very solemnly
the names of dead Americans,
please do not give the impression that
their lives were given without value,
without reason, without cause, because
they were given as a result of a very
important mission. They have given
great value to our country, and we owe
all of them a great debt of gratitude.
Madam Speaker, I have some other
citations that I will read at a later
time. I am just talking a little bit
about these great men and women who
serve our country in uniform, who I
think agreed with the proposition that
what we are doing in Iraq is the right
thing.
What I would like to do right now,
though, is yield to the gentlewoman
from Tennessee (Mrs. BLACKBURN), because
she has a few things to say about
this issue, and then we have five or six
other colleagues that I would like to
discuss this very important American
mission with. I yield to the gentlewoman
from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker,
I thank the gentleman from California
so much for yielding.
The gentleman from California
(Chairman HUNTER) has done a wonderful
job in leading in this war on terror
and leading in securing this homeland
and homeland security, which is right
at the top of concerns of the American
people. He is a true leader, and this
House is fortunate to have him as
chairman of the Committee on Armed
Services. This country is fortunate to
have his leadership on this issue.
Madam Speaker, over the last few
weeks, I have noticed a change in the
rhetoric, a troubling trend in the rhetoric.
We have heard some of it here tonight,
and it really saddens me when
those that are opposed to an aggressive
war on terror speak as they speak.
Increasingly we are seeing those that
oppose the war downplay the importance
of the war, or they are trying to
minimize the seriousness of the sacrifice
that our military is making. I
find that very sad.
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So, there’s the world’s end to him. For us, there is no end.
God bless you, and Semper Fi, Marine. See what all you can generate with a simple wish and a few words?
Always,
De’on
P.S. You can visit http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/austinaaronc.html
to find out more about Aaron and the people who continue to love him.

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/050404/new_younglion.shtml

I’ll bring out some others as time goes on. Steve has written a couple of articles on Aaron.

I pray your dreams are sweet.