I can not agree with you in 100% regarding some thoughts, but you got good point of view…

It is great the job that you are doing and there are always going to be those who are going to have negative things to say, but the pictures are priceless and it makes me look at my selfishness. I worry about my children and what it will be like as they grow-up, but when I take a peek at these pictures it just really tugs at my heart and I just thank God for all we have been blessed with.

The bottom line is that this war was not your decision but you made a choice to stand up for us and for that I (we) solute you, and all those standing up for us. I express my thanks with tears in my eyes and I keep you in my prayers. THANK YOU!

God Bless and Keep you. When you get home I will need your autograph, you are a hero in my book.

An ol’ friend,
S. Gehrmann

The pictures and your story are great. I thank you and the men and women at your side
fighting for us everyday. I can’t help but think of my small children and what it will be like for
them as they get older, it’s a bit scary. You soldiers are so appreciated.

I am sure your pictures have a great impact on many of the people who see them, they brought tears to my eyes. Keep snapping! You know that you will always have someone who disagrees and those who have better ideas or better plans, but I just want to say thank you because this war was not your decision, but you and the soldiers at your side stepped up to the plate for all of us. So, I (we) solute you.

God Bless you and keep you.

An ol’ classmate,
Sonja Gehrmann

Your Cousin Sherry

Duane Pionk

Jon sent me a picture of some children playing in the street. I thought they were such beautiful children. I wrote him and told him how looking at that picture reminded me that we all start out so innocent and that unfortunately our surroundings mold us and teach us to hate. Maybe the positive interaction he had with those children will leave a lasting impression with them.

I know our troops are making a difference. I thanked my brother many times for keeping my country and family safe. I still thank all of our soldiers for making the sacrifice they make to keep us safe and free.

America should Remember 9/11 everyday because if our troops were not in Iraq I am sure we would have had another attack that was just as devestating.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Rider

This brings me such great joy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

When I learned of “Roy’s” death I have included him; he was as worthy as his American brothers and died a hero’s death with them. Most American’s don’t know or understand the sacrifice the Iraqi people have made in this fight. On Jon’s tribute MySpace page I have listed all seven that were lost on that day.

Thank you again for bringing us rememberance of our lost one’s on Memorial Day. We were not able to be at Arlington because Jon’s sister delivered his name sake on the 20th and his step-sister delivered another fine boy on the 23rd. We were in Arizona with her so Jon’s cousin, Courtney, represented the family at Arlington.

Next Memorial Day we will dedicate the “Fallen Warrior” statue to honor Jon at our city’s Veteran’s Memorial. Friends from the Regiment will be invited. He was a good man and my mission is to see that he and the others are not forgotten.

i couldn’t include everything in the story because of time issues, but roy, a 15year old iraqi boy, away from his family was also killed in that blast. Joe maybe you can tell people a little more about roy, how you picked him up for the unit, how he got along with the other soldiers and the memorial you did for roy’s family.

Even when these guys lost six of their fellow soldiers, they still found the time and the energy, to reach out to roy’s family. that i think says alot.

I’ve been in touch with several of his “brothers-in-arms” and know of the emotional hurt they have suffered. To lose one is hard, to loose so many at once is more than I can imagine.

I’m a very opinionated father. I would tell Jon’s story to the world. On his Memorial card we put John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Jon, Matt, Todd, Sean, Zach and Chris did more than that, they laid their lives down for the people and children of Iraq so they could have a better life. They laid their lives down to protect the interest of their nation at a time when so many can not see the truth and the collective memory of the body politic is so short they can not remember the horror of September 11, 2001. This war began in 1978 and has been littered with the bodies of so many since; Beruit, ship and airline hijackings, Kohbar Towers, World Trade Center 1993, Embassies in Africa, the USS Cole and the suicide bombers in Israel. A thread connects all of these; the tread of terror. Sponsored by Saddam, Hammas, Hezebollah, Iran, Syrai, Tailban and on and on.

As Jefferson said, ” a nation can’t remain ignorant and free.” We have become a nation of the ignorant. We have become a nation of the ungrateful. We have become a nation divided and as Lincoln said, “a nation divided can not stand.” Thank you and SSG Cox and Fox News for trying to enlightened an ignorant mass. But, those who should hear it, refuse it. I’ve read their ignorant postings.

If you would like to contact me you may do so through my email.

Respectfully,
Carl M. Dozier

cox told me in the interview (i couldn’t include everything) that they knew these guys so well that even at night, in the dark, they missed them. here in part of the interview below.

cox “it’s hard even when it’s one person because each person plays a distinct role, distinct personality. you work with someone long enough you …even in the dark you can see them move and the distinct movement you know who it is. to lose those six, not just six guys at once, but those six guys it tooks us months to recover.”

please let me know if other families, like your own, come to the site. i would like to do a follow up on the story, though i don’t know where it will lead quite yet.

Thank you, Catherine

Thanks to Fox News for sharing the success our soldiers who are fighting and dieing for. I lost faith in the mainstream media in 1968 when Cronkite sold out our soldiers in Vietnam. The mainstream media is a mouth piece for the left and un American. When I was commissioned into the army I took an oath to defend the constitution against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.” We have enemies amongst us! Those who have given the least complain the most.

I will deliver your message to the people I am in contact with in Iraq and here in the United States.

Sue Davis

Cox told me two of their guys survived but were thrown from the roof and one of them saw the iraqi who gave them the tip to go inside the house. this soldier chased the iraqi down, according to cox, and tackled him and held him there for others to arrive. Cox said there was incredible discipline in that moment – not to kill that iraqi – the loss was so profound.

Sue, I would like to hear from any of the other families who lost sons in the attack. if you hear from them, please ask them to join the discussion here. i want to do a follow up.

thank you for writing. Catherine

I marvel at the tremendous discipline of mind and heart that this extraordinary spontaneous flexibility entails, and how draining it must be on the reserves of courage, spirit and energy of our young men and women on the OIF/OEF battlefronts. And yet they give their all, mostly unreservedly, because it is the call of their country to do so for their nation’s security, freedom and strategic interests.

I believe it is this adaptive duality in our modern military that is winning the war for us: because it fully takes account of the Middle Easterners’ (and Afghans’) absolute cultural respect for only quality: strength, but leavened by our American cultural orientation to compassion and generosity. Both factors operating in COIN synergy on the battlefront are what will enable us to prevail in the assymetrical warfare which will afflict the international landscape for many years to come.

As a new American who has personal memories of the positive and multifacted impact of American soldiers, sailors and airmen on her birth country, I can directly vouch that these Iraqi children will be forever “imprinted” by their unusual contact with the character of our soldiery, and that impact will influence the future of their country as they grow up to shape Iraq in the mold set by America’s boots on their ground at this moment in their history.

To SSgt. Cox and his battle buddies all over Iraq, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Mindanao: I salute you!
America is infinitely blessed to have sons and daughters like you.

Thank you, Ssgt. Cox, and thank you again, Catherine, for bringing both our gallant military, and these innocent “miserables”, to the fore of our consciousness, so they may all be in our prayers for hope and protection, blessings and thanksgiving.