Army Reserve soldiers, close friends killed in drone attack, mourned at funerals in Georgia https://t.co/3gtom5zcI4
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 18, 2024
Two vibrant young women, and an old man honoring them as best he could. Per the Associated Press, “Army Reserve soldiers, close friends killed in drone attack, mourned at funerals in Georgia”:
Two young citizen-soldiers who became close friends after enlisting in the Army Reserve were remembered at funerals in southeast Georgia on Saturday, nearly three weeks after they died in a drone attack while deployed to the Middle East.
A service for 24-year-old Sgt. Kennedy Sanders was held in the packed 1,200-seat auditorium of Ware County Middle School in Waycross.
Fellow soldiers recalled Sanders’ courage, her loving personality, and her willingness to volunteer for tasks few wanted to do, including learning to operate earth-moving equipment to help build roads and shelters, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“Behind her smile was a fierce determination,” Col. Jeffrey Dulgarian said during the service, adding that she “tackled her responsibility with vigor and skill.”…
A similar welcome marked the final homecoming for Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23, in Savannah. Moffett’s funeral at a Baptist church was scheduled for the same time Saturday as Sanders’ service 100 miles (161 kilometers) away. Moffett’s family requested that media not be present.
The soldiers were among three members of their Army Reserve unit who died Jan. 28 in a drone strike on a U.S. base in Jordan near the Syrian border. Also killed was Staff Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, who was buried Tuesday following a church service in Carrollton.
The military awarded all three soldiers promotions in rank after their deaths. They were assigned to the 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, based at Fort Moore in west Georgia…
Earlier this month:
A solemn day. @POTUS will attend a dignified transfer at Dover for three U.S. servicemembers killed in Jordan, who ‘risked it all’ https://t.co/ReFzvZ3saB
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) February 2, 2024
.@ajc w/ a video of Biden calling the family of a soldier killed last weekend.
“we’re promoting her posthumously to sergeant.”
“Thank you, sir”
“You don’t know how much that means to us”
Then the parents sobbed. A family friend held the phone.
pic.twitter.com/ckpn4j8DZF— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) January 31, 2024
The full storyhttps://t.co/lReeqj94II
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) January 31, 2024
Mourning the loss of a brave, beautiful family member, Kennedy Sanders, in Jordan. The President of the United States just called to pay respect, and to award her the rank of Sergeant. Love you forever, Kennedy. pic.twitter.com/EJYNS5ziTq
— George Wallace (@MrGeorgeWallace) January 31, 2024
Two of the American troops killed on Sunday were, like many young Black women, drawn to the military for the opportunities and level playing field it offered.
My latest for @nytimes, with @David_Philipps: https://t.co/QuyjT7lr42— Sean Keenan (@ThatSeanKeenan) January 31, 2024
As I recall, Trump got sick of doing this and shunted the responsibility off to Mike Pence (who he later tried to have murdered) https://t.co/JMhOAFHzvF
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 2, 2024
Donald Trump also picked a fight with Gold Star widow Myeshia Johnson and called her a liar for pointing out that he forgot her husband’s name, La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger on his watch.
— Island Girl – 100% Pro-Choice, Vote Blue (@bluepolitics_) February 2, 2024
My Republican colleagues who have been recklessly beating the drums of war would do well to remember:
The best thing we can do to honor our servicemembers is to make sure we don’t send them into harm’s way in a thoughtless manner. pic.twitter.com/AVPhYx4fgK
— Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) February 3, 2024
SiubhanDuinne
Every time an American serviceperson dies overseas, I am always struck by how personally President Biden takes it. Meeting the families (if they wish it), attending the dignified transfer ceremonies — it always seems that he quite literally (nods to Steve in the) views them as his own blood family. He must be powerfully reminded of Beau at every one of these events.
RIP to these three young Americans, and the deepest of condolences to their loved ones.
rikyrah
That call to the family…it was pure Joe Biden. He was just being Joe Biden. That’s the kind of humanity I want in my President.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
When he announced the posthumous promotion to Sergeant — SOB 😥🥲
JWR
That picture of Biden from the AP is something else! No wonder the inglorious Mr. T stopped going to those icky troop transfers. “Eww, yuck! Dead people!”
SiubhanDuinne
@JWR:
Yes. You can tell he’s genuinely hurting from the loss.
eclare
@JWR:
That is a powerful photo and shows how seriously Biden takes his job. The buck stops here.
bbleh
On the one hand, Joe Biden, who clearly takes moments like this both solemnly and personally, and who is a regularly observant Catholic who nevertheless doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve, and on the other hand, Donald Trump, who prefers winners-not-losers and ones-who-don’t-get-caught and who skipped not only duties like this but also a mere visit to a US military cemetery in France, and who was shamelessly unfaithful to multiple wives (and fkin creepy toward his daughter) and who has attended church … when, recently?
And whom do the noisy “patriots” and “Christians” support?
I can’t even … it’s driving me to drink. More drink.
cain
@SiubhanDuinne: That photo him looking at the casket. That’s real grief on his face. That’s who he is. He feels their pain like he feels the pain of his dead wife, and kids.
cain
@bbleh: It shows how demented they’ve become. How deeply fallen they have come as human beings. They are not MAGA but The Fallen.
lowtechcyclist
@JWR:
If you believe in this country, you should honor the sacrifices of those who have died in its service. Biden does. Trump cares only about himself.
And what Sen. Duckworth said. The best way to honor both the dead and the living is to not send them into danger thoughtlessly.
lowtechcyclist
@cain:
Truth. While claiming to follow Christ, they have lost their way, lost all moral bearings.
Frankensteinbeck
@bbleh:
The one who acts like they do.
JWR
@lowtechcyclist:
Thanks for working that “suckers” bit in there. I was gonna go with “losers!”, but whatever works.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: I cried too.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Really good points of Joe Biden is that he takes his job very seriously, he likes people, and he feels that a military person dying is like a member of his family dying. That he actually feels it. Great presidents feel that. They know that it is their job as the leader of the country to send members of the military in harms way and that every member of the armed forces can be in a place to risk everything, and often at a rather young age. He’s a good/great president because that is something that he feels down to his socks. Some don’t seem to understand that. But as a person that had to take risks as a member of the armed forces during a war – and no, not as great of risks as some but still, possibly life altering risks, that can mean more than many realize.
Joe Biden is a president of and for all of us, no matter our skin color or gender, it is not just a job that pays well and gives him status, he truly believes in this country and serving it well and he respects people that often have to put their lives on the line, and sometimes pay the ultimate price for that.
Ruckus
I’m sitting here, approximately 51 1/2 yrs after discharge from the Navy and thinking about some of the people I met when I was in a Navy hospital for 2 months, Navy and Marines, and some of them with massive wounds and issues from Vietnam. One was in a wheel chair and would be for the rest of his life, he’d been shot in the lower spine, one I saw was in full body cast, and on and on and on. And on. I was lucky, many were not. And it wasn’t just physical wounds, I sat with men who would never, ever be whole again, and men with anger so ingrained that I can’t believe that it ever subsided. Men without body parts, men that had to try to figure out how to live. And men that asked why should they. And we’ve had people involved in warfare since I was in and they don’t present any different than the ones that I knew. That man in the wheelchair who had lost the use of his legs and would never get that back, he had a spirit that I almost couldn’t believe. He just wanted to get on with his life, play wheelchair basketball and see what happens next. It takes all kinds in this world but until I go senile I will never forget that time or those men. Even if I want to forget every damn second.