In 2004 I might well have been the only person in the country who hadn't heard a word or note of the soundtrack to of the magnificent play affectionately known as LE MIZ.
Then one autumn day as my DH and I were driving around town doing errands, we sat at a red light and BRING HIM HOME began to play on the radio. I think I was sniffling by the end of the first verse,and out and out weeping at the end of the song.
As I prepared this diary the song was playing in my head. It's a prayer, one that is answered for some and not for others.
That prayer was not answered for the family members of Chief Warrant Officer Theodore U. Church, nor was it answered for the families of Pfc. Charles B. Hester, Staff Sergeant Thomas M. McFall or PFC Jr. Cedeno Sanchez. They will not come home alive.
And yet by a strange twist of fate the prayer was, in a way, answered for those who still love and will always remember Lt. Michael T. Newell, a Navy pilot whose F-8E Crusader went down in south-central Vietnam in 1966.
No, Newell will not be returning home and those who loved him and mourned him could be forgiven if they had long ago given up hope that even his mortal remains would come home.
Today we learned that he will indeed come home. And how welcome this bittersweet news will be to the mother who survived him and to all those in Ellenville, NY who have remembered him these last 40 years.
The Department of Defense had little to say about Staff Sgt McFall, Pfc. Jr. Cedeno Sanchez, PFC Charles P. Hesteror Chief Warrant Officer Theodore U. Church.
So fresh is the grievous news about these fallen warriors that their hometown newspapers barely had time to put together the notices of their deaths.
From the Department of Defense we learned that 32-year-old Chief Warrant Officer Theodore U. Church came from Southpoint Ohio. He died from wounds sustained when his helicopter crashed after being hit by enemy fire; and we know that his family has asked the Army to tell the media that they wanted to grieve in private.
We know that Pfc. Charles B. Hester of Cataldo Idaho died in Baghdad of wounds suffered when the vehicle he was in was struck by an improvised explosive device. He was 23.
The DOD tells us that staff Sergeant Thomas M. McFall died at the age of 36, and he was from Glendora California. Like Sanchez, he died in Baghdad of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their position during a dismounted patrol. Each man was assigned to First Battalion, 38th infantry Regiment, Fourth Brigade, Second Infantry Division, Fort Lewis Washington.
23-year-old Pfc. Charles B. Hester died in Baghdad after being wounded when the vehicle he was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device. He was with Fort Lewis's Second Battalion, Third Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade, Second infantry division Stryker Brigade combat team.
Read what you will find when you follow the links above for each one of these men and you'll find what information there is so far.
Whether or not more is publicly added to their stories as time goes by, we will always know this --- they were courageous in their lives, in the service, as the sons of parents, the beloved of family members and friends.
Each man had a world to lose, and each risked that world because he believed in his heart that his country needed him.
God on high, hear my prayer. Take them gently into your care.