Sad day in Tallahassee (and, really, the whole world.)
One hundred and four members of our armed forces died this past month in Iraq. On October 25, the numbers moved a lot closer to home when a Marine from Tallahassee became one of those deaths.
Daniel Burroughs Chaires was 20 years old, had been a Marine for a year, and was 6 weeks into his first tour of duty in Baghdad. My initial reaction upon reading and hearing of his death was, of course, sadness. I suspected too that he was somehow related to the Chaires family that settled a community to the southeast edge of Leon County. I was right on that count-- he, in fact, is a direct descendent. I also learned that he was the son of one of my colleagues from the College of Nursing... and that he had attended Rhianna's elementary school when he was much younger.
He was the 6th serviceperson from the Tallahassee/Leon County area to die in Iraq or Afghanistan but is the first who I have even remotely known. I didn't know his mother well but she is a colleague and a fellow nurse. It just always seemed that it was someone else from somewhere else... which made it easier to somewhat disregard. But now?
It would be easier to reconcile if it actually felt like we were GETTING somewhere. Instead, the body count grows virtually on a daily basis and there is no change in the violence and nothing in Iraq seems to get much better. And yet good men and women continue to go and fight on behalf of our country... and way too many do NOT come home.
Because he was the son of a colleague, I likely will attend the service. It will be my first military funeral. I expect that it is going to be packed since the entire community seems to have come out in their support. After all, he is one of our own... and he went to make whatever difference he could knowing full well he could be one of the unlucky ones.
The little-known 3rd verse of America the Beautiful, written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859 - 1929) really comes to mind:
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Til all success be nobleness, and every gain divine
May God bless and comfort his family.
And rest in peace, Lance Cpl. Daniel Burroughs Chaires.
Daniel Burroughs Chaires was 20 years old, had been a Marine for a year, and was 6 weeks into his first tour of duty in Baghdad. My initial reaction upon reading and hearing of his death was, of course, sadness. I suspected too that he was somehow related to the Chaires family that settled a community to the southeast edge of Leon County. I was right on that count-- he, in fact, is a direct descendent. I also learned that he was the son of one of my colleagues from the College of Nursing... and that he had attended Rhianna's elementary school when he was much younger.
He was the 6th serviceperson from the Tallahassee/Leon County area to die in Iraq or Afghanistan but is the first who I have even remotely known. I didn't know his mother well but she is a colleague and a fellow nurse. It just always seemed that it was someone else from somewhere else... which made it easier to somewhat disregard. But now?
It would be easier to reconcile if it actually felt like we were GETTING somewhere. Instead, the body count grows virtually on a daily basis and there is no change in the violence and nothing in Iraq seems to get much better. And yet good men and women continue to go and fight on behalf of our country... and way too many do NOT come home.
Because he was the son of a colleague, I likely will attend the service. It will be my first military funeral. I expect that it is going to be packed since the entire community seems to have come out in their support. After all, he is one of our own... and he went to make whatever difference he could knowing full well he could be one of the unlucky ones.
The little-known 3rd verse of America the Beautiful, written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859 - 1929) really comes to mind:
O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Til all success be nobleness, and every gain divine
May God bless and comfort his family.
And rest in peace, Lance Cpl. Daniel Burroughs Chaires.