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By Joe Renna
War is not personal. Military leaders must discuss war in statistical terms. It is difficult enough to mobilize an army knowing that there will be casualties without putting names on the X's and O's. All soldiers understand this.
War is dehumanizing. It is designed that way or it would be difficult for any rational mind to comprehend it. Those in the military who accept their roles as soldiers and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice do so for the safety and well being of every person in the country. They are willing to give their own life if it would save just one other. To do this they must transcend their personal instinct for self survival and be a soldier first.
Soldiers must disengage from reality but their loved ones back home don't have to and shouldn't. Civilians must play a role in supporting the troops emotionally. A connection back home offers a perspective to the surreal environment they are living in. While the media reports on the statistics of the war it is the duty of the public to ensure that those who are fighting and dying are remembered not as soldiers but as friends, neighbors and family.
This is a story of one exceptional human being and soldier, Air Force Colonel Joseph Brennan, M.D. Brennan is a surgeon in the Air Force and reached the rank of full Colonel in 2003 at the age of 43. He is the Chairman of Otolaryngology at Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio. In September of 2004 he will be flying to Iraq to work in a Combat Surgical Hospital, a fancy name for a tent. He will be somewhere north of Baghdad. That's as specific as he can get.The only thing he knows for sure is that it is a long way from his ranch house in Texas and from his wife, Pam, and their four sons.
Brennan doesn't have to go to the front. He doesn't even have to stay in the military. He could have retired or at least found it necessary to stay in Texas. The Colonel could have found a dozen creative reasons to stay put, but he didn't. His skills as a surgeon are much needed and he felt it his duty to go. He is going to war to save the lives of young men and women who are not much older than his oldest son, Daniel. These soldiers are fighting so we can enjoy our safety and freedom. He reads the news of the war and the danger he will face. But he is going anyway.
Colonel Brennan Joe is not just a soldier he is a loving family man, a caring friend and a dutiful citizen. Joe's one of the guys. A graduate of Elizabeth High School class of '78, he played PAL Football and went to the diner to hang out. His father, Joe Sr., was Director of Police under Mayor Dunn. His mom and dad are very proud of their son. In Iraq Colonel Brennan will be one of the X's. It is up to us back home to make sure he stays one of the guys.
This issue of Around About Peterstown will try to humanize a statistic that is long overdue. There were 364 Elizabethans that were killed in WWII. The number is almost inconceivable. 364, from just one city, our city. What a cold hard number. That number represents 364 of our loved ones and friends. On Pages 12 to 15 there is a list of every name along with their address. Each one had a typical childhood like the rest of their friends except that's all they had.
We should honor the memory of those who passed and embrace those who are with us by supporting our troops.