07-11-2008, 07:25 PM
| #1 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Las Vegas
Posts: 1,894
| Okay, what's with this guy? Fort Worth dad deploying to country that took his son | Top Stories | Star-Telegram.com You guys know me, and I don't question much about wanting to serve in the military. It can be honourable, worthy, and very good for the right people. But this guy...I don't get it. In a nutshell...44 year old man, retired from the Air Force for 17 years. His 20 year old son was sniped in Iraq. So he decided to reenlist. So far, I understand the impulse. He wants to do something, confront it, make some sort of difference, maybe even a measure of revenge. He brings experience to the table, maybe a cooler head, that's valuable, that's a genuine help. Not really a big deal, as it were. It's his life, his decision. "As a member of the security forces responsible for protecting the combined Army and air base, he will work in a guard tower, perform searches, work the gates or patrol the fence lines, possibly all of them. He doesn’t know yet." Here's where I start to have a problem: "As a condition for her support, he promised his wife, Maria, that he wouldn’t volunteer for a tour in Iraq, that he would only go if ordered. But Martinez broke his promise this year and raised his hand, hating that he broke his word but feeling that he could not honorably serve with people doing more than him." That bugs me. But it gets, in my mind, worse. "He was such a part of me," he said, "and a part of me died that day. But it is so important to keep him alive in some way. I can’t let such an important piece of me die." "Monica, the 7-year-old daughter of Paco and Maria and the spoiled little sister of Paquito, moved her bed into her parents’ room a few weeks ago.When her father leaves, she will move the bed out again and just start sleeping with her mother. Her father already carries a drawing by Monica of a little pond and a parent duck and two baby ducks and a big purple heart." What. The. Hell? He has a seven year old daughter who's lost her brother, not to mention his wife's loss, and he goes and does this? I mean again, I'm hardly one to question the impulse to serve, but this strikes me as something a bit less healthy. Is his son's loss more important to him than his daughter's sense of well being? Her need for her father? His promise to his wife? This strikes me as a surprisingly selfish act. "For all the difficulties and adjustments of this deployment, they seem to have fallen hardest on Monica, whose fears have reared up in drawings and nightmares. 'Going to Iraq, for her, means you don’t come back,' Martinez said. 'She has had a very hard time with this.'" I sort of question how committed he is to his daughter at this point. He's not, in my eyes, really living up to his responsibilities to them as a father and husband. "A computer programmer and systems analyst accustomed to a six-figure salary, Martinez now wears the stripes of a staff sergeant, the equivalent of a buck sergeant in the Army, pulling down half (about $4,400 a month) of what he used to earn." This too. His family is going to be worse off because of this decision. There's more. "It has always shocked people, especially people who know Martinez well, that he signed up for the military after Paquito’s death and volunteered for Iraq. He has always opposed the Iraq invasion, even before Paquito was killed, and nothing has shaken him from his belief that the war is wrong." "But his path is, of course, much different. The whole reason he joined the military was out of his conviction that — wrong war or not — he could do something to keep another young man alive." Maybe at the cost of his wife's husband? His daughter's father? Maybe it's a terrible thought, but isn't it better that someone who has people depending on him not make that sort of sacrifice? I just can't feel like this particular man is doing this for anything close to the right reasons. No flame war, please. I just want to hear some other thoughts about this. This one guy here...this bothers me. - Coeloptera |
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07-11-2008, 07:37 PM
| #2 |
| Senior Member  |
If someone died and you thought you could have made a difference, how would you live with that? I don't know how to put it into words. I'm sorry. It is something in you, a sense of honor and duty. To a lot of people these are just words. It is very hard to express. Maybe someone else can explain what I'm trying to say. It is something in you. It is a need to do what you believe is right. It has to do with character,duty,loyalty,and honor. Sorry that is the best I could do.
__________________ Jan. 4, 2007...Gasoline $2.10/gallon HMMM? Jim  |
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07-11-2008, 07:42 PM
| #3 |
| Senior Member   Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: South Arkansas
Posts: 10,717
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You said it very well JimKim.
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07-11-2008, 07:52 PM
| #4 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Las Vegas
Posts: 1,894
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No, I get all that, but what about his family? That's the issue I'm having with this. He has responsibilities as a father that he's not really, in my mind, living up to. The how could I live with that part also asks, how could you let your family lose you? Is some stranger more important than they are? That's what this seems to say to me. - Coeloptera Last edited by Coeloptera; 07-11-2008 at 07:55 PM. |
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07-11-2008, 09:34 PM
| #5 | |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: MS
Posts: 601
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I definitely see what you are saying. Something tells me this is more a matter of revenge. We may hear more of this guy on the news. No sane minded individual would abandon a wife and daughter after suffering such a loss. His son died doing his job. It's a shame but that was the risk he took by enlisting and i'm sure he was aware of that. I was raised to value family before anything. If his son died fighting a war on U.S soil defending against an invading force then I may could see dad puttin back on the boots and defending his country, family, and way of life. That's not the case with Iraq. | |
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07-12-2008, 12:57 AM
| #7 | |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Alaska
Posts: 899
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Hopefully his wife and daughter will not suffer any greatrer grief, the loss of his life, by his decisions. | |
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07-12-2008, 06:24 AM
| #8 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Iowa
Posts: 753
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My Great-grandfather enlisted in WWI along with one of his sons. He left a family, wife and thirteen children, and was killed in action. He was not thought of too highly for leaving his family and running off to war at his age, 58. Myself, I re-enlisted with a wife and four children at home, 10 years after getting out. WTF was I thinking?
__________________ If you run, you'll just die tired. |
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07-12-2008, 06:29 AM
| #9 |
| Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,499
| Grief can push someone
perhaps already a bit unstable over the edge of reason.
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07-12-2008, 04:19 PM
| #10 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: atlanta, but much rather be in valdosta
Posts: 1,587
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heres how it lines up for me god, family, country its what he wants to do, hes got his reasons, if it were me i dont think i would go.....but like i said, it aint me |
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07-12-2008, 04:25 PM
| #11 |
| Senior Member   Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Tampa
Posts: 6,877
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Sounds like pay back/revenge to me,but.... 
__________________  USAF '62-'66  . |
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07-12-2008, 07:39 PM
| #12 |
| Senior Member  Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 3,596
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Folks, you can not get into his head and know what he is thinking so you are judging him by your thoughts and feelings. It is not our place to judge. He may believe that he is good enough at his job to prevent some other young soldiers with less experience from being killed and their parents having to face the loss he did. If he can save l soldier that is great and if he can save more, even better. Soldiers will listen to an experienced Sergeant and if this is what he is doing, God bless him and his soldiers.
__________________ America: Love it and protect it or leave it |
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