What’s so civil about war anyway?
“Civil War”, Guns N’ Roses, 1991
Walt Shellabarger is a 24-year-old sophomore at the University of Miami majoring in international studies. He is also an inactive reserve in the United States Marine Corps who served with the 3rd Battalion 4th Marines Kilo Company. Currently he receives $1,800 a month through the GI Bill, which barely covers the payments for his truck, house, and food, let alone the $34,000 price tag of attending UM.
Shellabarger’s company was involved in the First Battle of Fallujah in April of 2004. The following video is his account of a firefight in which he lost friend and squad leader Daniel Amaya:
Walt is not the only person to know tragedy in Iraq. On September 14, 2008, Darris J. Dawson, a 24-year-old from Pensacola, was killed, possibly by a fellow soldier. On November 13, 2006, Panama City Beach resident Joshua Cope lost his legs while two other 20-year-old soldiers were killed as a bomb went off near their Humvee. Travis Youngblood, 26, was killed in Iraq while his wife was pregnant with their second child. And these are just a few stories from the 170 killed and 1,600 wounded from Florida alone.
Unimaginably, it was worse before, during World War II and Vietnam. Are we lucky to have lost so few in comparison? Or unlucky to have lost any?