Thank You For Your Service

With Veteran's Day just around the corner I felt it was appropriate to blog about soldier. Navy Lt. Florence Bcong Choe was only 35 years old when she was killed in Afghanistan. While on a run one morning with three other U.S service members, and Afgan soldier open-fired at the group killing Choe immediately. She was so young, so innocent. She did not deserve to be killed at such a young age or in such a horrific way. In fact, no one deserves that. Florence was simply following in her fathers footsteps and she dreamed of making a difference in the world but sadly her time was cut much too short. Her daughter, Kristin, who was three years old at the time of her death was too young to wrap her head around everything. But now, at age five, Kristin is accepting the fact that "mommy's in heaven" and she believes she will see her one day. Florence's husband and Kristin's father, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chong "Jay" Choe is still recovering and thinks about his wife every single day. At the time of Florence's death, Jay was working at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego. He was called into his admiral's office one day out of the blue and Jay's first words to his admiral were, "I'm sorry for whatever I did." Jay was unaware that his admiral had the sad news of his wife's death. Now, as a loving and single father to Kristin, he tries his best to give her the best life possible, without a mother. 


Author Wayne Drash thoughtfully approached this article and was very compassionate in areas such as describing her death and how her family is healing. His use of pathos helped him connect with his audience, and his audience with the subject. This article was definitely a "tear jerker." I think that his overwhelming use of emotions help to prove that he is anti-war. I have been fortunate enough to not have gone through that awful tragedy but the detail and emotion Drash included made me seem like I was a part of the story. He includes the feelings and thoughts of Jay, "To this day, I would give anything in this world to go back to that moment and to have gone to the ticket counter to get the special pass so that we could escort her all the way to the gate, to have those few last minutes together," Choe said. "I will never forgive myself for that." Jay reflects back to the last time he saw Florence. He was dropping her at the airport for her deployment and she insisted that he stayed back with Kristin. Kristin is his pride and joy of life and that overcomes his grief. So, this Veteran's Day, please keep in mind all of our soldiers, from the past and present, and those who have gone before us. 

Moving on when mom is killed at war
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/08/us/cnnheroes-war-widower/index.html?hpt=wo_bn3