Another friend lost

I got an e mail this morning that my friends had lost another man on the line in Afghanistan. Spc. Julian Berisford, a man from  West Virginia, was killed by  RPG and small arms fire on Wednesday. C Co. 3/509 at FOB Salerno has been out on the line since February, and have been doing their jobs every day in close contact with fundamentalists at war with moderation. He was 25 and had seen the elephant and was okay with it.

I didn’t know Julian, but I ended up on his MySpace page. He was a typical 509er; brash and self assured; a good man and competent. I got a big kick out of some of his posts. He was someone I would have liked to have known and a man we can all be proud of. He had a daughter just about to celebrate her first birthday. It hurts a lot of people that he is gone now.

Down in San Antonio at Brooks Army Medical Center, they have Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who turns out to have been a whacked out fundamentalist, on life support at a cost of probably $30,000/day. Major Hasan walked into the health services building at Ft. Hood and cold bloodedly murdered 13 infidels and wounded another 32 and they caught him in the act. Now he will get a fair and proper trial and probably use the insanity defense.

The President says don’t jump to conclusions and the media call Hasan the “alleged” shooter. He was caught in the act and shot 4 times by a cop. It makes me sick.  There is something seriously wrong with our society when a hero like Julian is ignored and our President and our media act like craven cretins.

Forgive me if I’m a little bitter tonight.