Just discovered that Major Andy Olmstead has been killed in Iraq and wanted to put this up here.
He was the first casualty for 2008 in Iraq. And a small part of Maj. Andrew Olmsted likely would’ve chuckled at that fact. It would be droll and play into his sense of self-deprecation.
But for everyone else, the news would be devastating.
Amanda Wilson, his wife of 10 years, could barely talk Friday. The notifying officers came to her door in Colorado Springs on Thursday to tell her that Olmsted’s unit had been ambushed and that he was dead. Also killed was Cpt. Thomas J. Casey, 32, of Albuquerque.
It was small arms fire, they said. The gaping blackness after that moment seemed to suck away all the words, leaving only soft sobs in their wake.
“I know,” she said quietly when condolences were passed on to her. Her mother, who was flown in Friday to help, was also having trouble with the news. “She’s trying to be brave,” Wilson’s soft voice said.
Olmsted, however, asked everyone to avoid being maudlin. And he asked everyone via a blog, of course. The 38-year-old soldier based out of Fort Carson was a prolific blogger – including one he did steadily for the Rocky Mountain News dating back to his deployment in July.
His final posting where he speaks to us from beyond the grave is at Obsidian Wings.
It’s hard for me NOT to make something of this nature political because I see everything concerning Iraq as political. Andy Olmstead though has asked us all not to do this while observing his death. He is asking us to participate in observing a tradition of excellence that has been lately ignored in the military of this democracy and that is THE ALWAYS APOLITICAL MILITARY OFFICER IN SERVICE TO THIS NATION!
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I saw this at DKos right before I left work and still haven’t had a chance to read the final post at OW. I think I’ll wait til morning for that. 🙁 I’m so sorry for him and his family. A tragic loss.
this last night. 🙁
Though I had not read his blogs before, I did read his last post and the comments and learned that he was respected and esteemed by many people.
May he rest in peace.
American militarism now has a smiley face. This is what makes it so dangerous and entrenched. We have now fully divorced the worship of our soldiers from their actions and the consequences of those actions. Once this separation is complete, nothing our soldiers are ordered to do will be challenged, because these are the boys next door, the good guys, the jolly fellows with a ready smile and a self-deprecating sense of humor.
This soldier’s premature death is a sad thing, but it should not contribute to a deeply irrational belief in the unconditional goodness of the American military. Our military is not an intrinsically noble and desirable thing. If we lived in a more peaceful world, we would disband our military, and adventurous young men would go mountaineering or explore distant and dangerous places.
I mean no disrespect toward this soldier who died serving a cause in which he believed. But it is very important for Americans to realize that it is profoundly dangerous to develop an unconditional admiration for our soldiers, because this will lead us into endless wars.