Death of a soldier
Through roundabout means, this morning I happened across a memorial posting for Major Andrew Olmsted, who was killed in Iraq a couple of days ago.
The most unusual thing about the entry is that most of it was written by Major Olmsted himself, sent to a friend to be posted in case of Olmsted's death. It's worth reading.
(Also unusual, and possibly of interest to some of you who might not normally be inclined to follow that link: Olmsted was a Babylon 5 fan--he blogged under the name "G'Kar," and his post includes several quotes from B5.)
The part of the post not written by Olmsted also includes a link to Olmsted's final blog entry, posted in late December, about handing out gifts from Americans to some local refugees. The comments on that entry include a bunch of comments from Olmsted's friends and family and colleagues on learning of his death. Also worth reading.
I also thought Olmsted's thoughtful and personal entry from last June titled "Why go to Iraq?" was interesting and worthwhile.
I'll ask here, as hilzoy and Olmsted asked on the original posting, that y'all not turn this into an opportunity to try to convince people of your beliefs about whether we should or shouldn't be in Iraq. I'm posting this because I found Olmsted's words moving and interesting, and thought others might as well. I didn't know him at all, or even know of him, but I'm sad that he's gone; my condolences to his loved ones.
On a side note, I've been meaning to post for a while about milblogs--the ones I've irregularly read have been pretty consistently interesting. I've been particularly meaning to link to The Sandbox, Slate's and Doonesbury's "command-wide milblog, featuring comments, anecdotes, and observations from service members currently deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan."
