Where I Stand — Columnist Mike O’Callaghan: Giving recognition to those fighting and dying

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 5:05 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WEEKEND EDITION January 10 - 11, 2004

When was the last time you saw a front-page story about our soldiers being killed or wounded in Iraq? Probably on the last slow news day. Too seldom do the deaths and wounding of these men and women appear on the front pages of any daily newspaper.

This week in the Monday edition of our local daily newspapers it was difficult to find the story of four soldiers being wounded. The local Sunday newspaper did, on page 16A, tell of three soldiers dying. The Monday international edition of The New York Times told readers that three more Americans had been killed in Iraq. The following information was in a box on page A11:

"The Department of Defense has identified 483 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the death of the following Americans yesterday:

BANGAYAN, Solomon C., 24, Specialist, Army; Jay, Vt.; 82nd Airborne Division.

SEIDEN, Marc S., 26, Specialist, Army; Brigantine, N.J.; 82nd Airborne Division.

HAMPTON, Kimberly N., 27, Capt., Army; Easley, S.C.; 82nd Airborne Division."

I didn't know any of the soldiers who were killed but they, as fellow Americans, were important to me. They were especially important to the folks they left back home. Yes, and they were important to the families and friends of every American serving in that killing zone we call Iraq.

What bothers me is the drifting of our attention from the sacrifices being made by our troops to stories centered on holiday celebrations, local gossip and water shortages. Is this because Americans don't want to hear about these sacrifices of pain and death and spend their extra time praying that the stock market will be healthy? War movies and ski slopes are exciting and don't twinge the conscience of a person who doesn't have a close relative in harm's way.

The bodies of almost 500 American service people have come home from the war that started 10 months ago. When was the last time you saw a television news story showing the caskets covered with flags arriving in our country? Has the arrival of these caskets become routine? Do they only affect the family or the neighbors? We may not see the arrival of the caskets or read about the soldiers being killed, but these caskets are arriving almost everyday.

Americans had better beware the human desire to hide the unpleasant facts of life and death where they don't bother them. The vast majority of Americans don't have somebody near and dear to them serving in Iraq because our volunteer regular military and reserves are doing the tough jobs. These are the jobs that result not only in death for hundreds but the loss of limbs and eyes for even larger numbers.

We all realize the importance of Afghanistan developing a constitution and Iraq trying to form a new government. Neither would be possible if it weren't for the actions of our military forces. That's why I get irritated when reading about the death and wounding of Americans tagged onto the end of the "big story" about other happenings over there.

Americans should be more interested in learning if all of our soldiers have the best equipment needed for guerrilla warfare. They don't, and the Pentagon people say they are correcting the shortages of modern protective vests that save lives. We, as Americans, had better keep asking why not and keep the pressure on decision makers.

During the Korean War people did their best to put it on the back burner. Three years later more than 33,000 Americans had been killed in combat. During the Vietnam War, because of television, they did get excited about the loss of lives and then foolishly took their frustrations out on the returning service men and women. Let's hope that we learned something from both of those wars.

American military service people engaged in both Afghanistan and Iraq are there because we sent them there. They are fighting a nasty and mean little war because we, you and I, sent them to do the job. We owe them and their families the love and support they have earned. This can't be accomplished if we allow ourselves to be lulled into treating them as faceless men and women who belong to someone else.