Wednesday Hero

Spc. Josiah H. Vandertulip
21 years old from Irving, Texas
2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division
October 14, 2004


Louise Vandertulip fussed at her son about his spending. He bought wild, overpriced hats that had flames on them or horns coming out of the top, she said.

While in Army basic training, he bought portraits of himself. His mother told him to save his money.

She's glad he didn't listen.

The hats and the pictures are all a part of her memories now.

Spc. Josiah H. Vandertulip was killed in Baghdad when his patrol came under small arms fire.

Josiah Vandertulip joined the Army right after his graduation from Irving High School in 2002. He spent a year in South Korea before being stationed at Texas' Fort Hood in February. Against his mother's advice, he volunteered to go to Iraq. She told him to wait, to go to college.

"When he was determined to do something in his heart, he would do it and hell or high water couldn't keep him from it," she said

By going, he knew someone else with a young family could be saved from serving, relatives said.

He always had the important things right, Louise Vandertulip said.

"There's a lot of rest in knowing that he died doing what he believed in and doing what he thought was right," she said.

"We have a much more real sense of the cost for the freedom that we enjoy now," said his father, Robert Vandertulip.

"Josiah was the first brand new soldiers I received as a dismounted team leader in Korea. He was one of the Best soldiers I have had the honor to train and work with. He loved being a soldier as much as any guy I have met. He was a great leader in the absence of his superiors. I could always count on him to make sure the mission was accomplished. I watched him change over the year I had him from a goofy kid, to a hard charging soldier."
Sgt. Nickolas Faul

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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Crap. Just in time for Mother's day. This man was someones baby. His mother has pictures and memories of his first wobbly steps, and I'm sure there are some Tee ball pictures of him grinning like a loon. There are those gawky pre teen years, when he became unsure of his smile, and then that sober faced senior portrait, when he was trying so hard to look like an adult. I'm glad he took those portraits for his mom, once he had started to figure out who he was and what he wanted to do-but she is missing the other half of those pictures. The ones with his arms wrapped around the girl of his dreams, with his hands on her big belly. His mom won't get the snapshot of his infant son or daughter wearing one of his goofy hats.

Those are the things that would kill me, I think. The photos that would be missing from my albums. I admit, I get a little overly sentimental when I imagine my self as the mother of a soldier. But it's not just one or two mothers who will be thinking about things like this on mother's day. There are THOUSANDS of moms with their hearts aching. All I ask is that we remember what they have lost. Honor our vets and the military families that support our troops every day.

Think about the military family who DOESN'T lose a son or a father, but a different man returns, sometimes physically, but almost always mentally. Tony Blair has brokered a peace in Northern Ireland for his legacy. What, exactly, will Dubya leave behind?