Pat Dollard | Young Americans

It is the last blog entry of Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato of Danvers, Massachusetts, who died from injuries sustained from an IED in Afghanistan on Monday, Oct 13th. I believe he speaks for the vast majority of U.S Armed Forces personnel who are deployed over in that part of the wordl, and here at home.

The following was the last entry in his blog:

If I may …

I’d like to say something….Just to get it out there so it is clear.

To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush’s agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and Fuck You.

I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the “war on terrorism.” i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America’s sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.

I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaeda, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with.

I don’t care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and I don’t care if you don’t think our freedom within America’s borders is actually at stake. I just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple.

Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America’s power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There’s nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.

I am a proud American. I believe that my country allows me to live my life more or less however I want to, and believe me, I have seen what the alternative of that looks like. I also believe that our big scary government does way more than it has to help complete fuck-ups get back on their feet, a stark comparison to places where leaders just line their own pockets with gold while allowing the people who gave them their power and privilege to starve.

I have chosen my corner. I back my country, and am proud to defend it against aggressors.

Also, if you dare accuse us of being inhumane, or overly aggressive because we have rolled into someone else’s country and blown some shit up and shot some people, let me remind you of just how inhumane we COULD be in defending ourselves. Let me remind you that we have a warhead that drops multiple bomblets from the stratosphere which upon impact, would turn all the sand in Iraq to glass, and reduce every living thing there to dust.

Do we use it?

No.

Instead we use the most humane weapon ever devised: the American Soldier. We send our bravest (and perhaps admittedly craziest) men and women into enemy territory, into harms way, to root out those whom we are after and do our best to leave innocent lives unscathed.

…One last thing…

A proposal: I know it has been stated time and time again but I just think it is worthy of reiteration. If you find yourself completely disgusted with the way America is being ran, and how we handle things on the global stage, you can leave. Isn’t that amazing? No one will stop you! If you are an anarchist, there are places you can go where there is no government to tell you anything. That’s right…you are left solely to your own devices and you can handle the men who show up at your door with AKs in any way that you see fit. Just don’t try good old American debate tactics on them because you will most likely end up bound and blind-folded, to have your head chopped off on the internet so your parents can see it.

However, if you insist on staying here and taking advantage of privileges such as free speech and WIC, keep the counter-productive shit to a minimum while the grown ups figure out how to handle this god-awful mess in the middle east.

END

His family speaks:

This was the artcile in the Boston Globe:

BEVERLY - Among the flood of memories that rushed through Elizabeth “Betty” Crawford’s mind yesterday was the time in July she stood at Logan Airport watching her son, Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, as he prepared to leave her and New England.

Suddenly, the supportive but anxious mom who had easily handled every other separation since her son enlisted in the Army in 2005 was replaced by the mother who wanted to reach out, grab hold of her son, and never let him go.

“I knew I was sending him back to a war zone, [and] I didn’t want [the Army] to have my son,” she recalled yesterday. “But the other part of me said this is what he wanted to do. He was a soldier. This was his job. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life.”

Crawford recalled that Logan moment yesterday as she also recalled her son, who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown by up an improvised explosive device. At least two other soldiers were killed, Army officials told Fortunato’s family.

“My son Stephen was very affectionate and a loving kid,” Crawford said of her 25-year-old son. “He was the jokester, all the time. But he was also a dedicated soldier. He went into the Army like anyone else, a kid. He came home as a man.”

According to his family, Fortunato’s decision to enlist into a war-time Army was driven by a powerful feeling of patriotism; a desire to experience war personally, not only through a video game; and the opportunity to use the GI Bill to pay for college.

Since joining, he had served in Korea, but in July he was assigned to the First Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and was deployed to Afghanistan.

He returned to Beverly for a three-week break, which ended Sept. 26. He then spent about two weeks working his way back to Afghanistan and had been there only briefly when he was killed, his family said yesterday.

“He wanted to change the world,” his father, Richard, said in a phone interview from his Florida home yesterday. “How he was going to do it single-handedly, I don’t know. But he wanted to change the world.”

The elder Fortunato also recalled a conversation with his son: “He told me in these words, ‘Dad, I’m ready to die for my country.’ I don’t know where he got that, he just wanted to be out there, to do it.”

Fortunato was from a prominent Beverly family, which includes a former mayor and school superintendent. He grew up in Danvers and Beverly and graduated from Beverly High School in 2002, his family said.

He tried studying graphic arts at North Shore Community College, but decided he was not ready for college, his family said. He enlisted, choosing the Army because he wanted to be in combat. “That’s where he wanted to be, in the middle of it,” his father said.

Fortunato was the oldest of three children, and his younger siblings were at their mother’s side yesterday, offering support and memories of their brother.

“I don’t even want to believe this is true. He was my role model, my hero,” said Anthony, 20, the youngest. “My brother was everything to me. I loved him so much that I really, really hope that wherever he is, he knows that.”

Joseph Fortunato, 23, said he and his extended family are still reeling from his brother’s death. “I never thought it would happen to our family,” he said.

Sherri Favaloro, whom Stephen Fortunato married in 2006, said yesterday the couple’s marriage had been stressed to near the breaking point by his service.

They had begun divorce proceedings. But, she said, they were in constant contact over the phone and Internet and were trying to patch things up, especially during his leave in September.

“He had brown hair, green eyes, and the biggest smile in the world,” she said. “He was a loving person. He loved his family. He loved his mother. He stayed strong for them. He was a hero.”

According to his family, Fortunato’s original enlistment would have ended in mid-December. But because he was assigned to a unit that deployed to Afghanistan in July, his tour of duty was extended into 2009.

“I wish he was here and I miss him a lot. I wish this card wasn’t dealt to him, but it was,” his father said. “I lost my oldest son. I miss him.

“But he gave up his life for a great cause; he gave it up for his country. I don’t know what else I can tell you.”

Funeral arrangements are incomplete, the family said.

(Boston)

Nods to John Howell (you guys know: Howie of Thang Apparel, Chandler’s Watch, & a Marine Veteran) sent this to me today.