The price for freedom

They were on a quick nighttime mission.

Thirty Americans, trained and fully equipped to defend themselves, were shot down over Afghanistan. Those lost included 22 Navy SEALs – 20 from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed Osama Bin Laden – three Air Force members and a dog handler and his dog.

They were on their way to help Army Rangers under fire when their Chinook helicopter came under attack and crashed. The event became the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the war in Afghanistan.

But the loss is more than a news release and statistics.

The losses, as in all wars, are personal. There's Matthew Mason, the father of two young sons. Mason was a former high school athlete who'd lost part of his left arm while fighting in Fallujah.

Twenty-five-year-old Michael Strange enjoyed snowboarding, running and being part of the SEALs. Tommy Ratzlaff left behind two sons and a baby on the way.

Most of the time, casualties during wartime are referred to as statistics. According to the American War Library, over 25,000 soldiers were killed during the Revolutionary War. During World War II, over 408,000 soldiers gave their lives, and over 58,000 soldiers died during the Vietnam War.

To compare, the city of Denver has 467,000 people and the cities of Richmond and Rosenberg together have almost 50,000 people. Imagine losing everyone in those areas in a violent manner.

I'm not naive enough to believe warring nations can sit down calmly at a negotiating table and solve their differences peacefully. Nor am I blind to the reality that meeting force with force is often the only route dictators understand.

But when I read the biographies of the Navy SEALs and tally up the number of the dead and wounded from military action over the course of our country's history, I cannot help but imagine a face for every one of those grim statistics.

They were somebody's son or daughter, a father, mother, sister or brother. They gave their life to defend our country and the freedom of people around the world.

In addition to the soldiers whose lives were lost while in combat, there are those who served and returned. The veterans I know are proud they served their country, but the scars and horrors they witnessed stay with them for the rest of their lives.

There's no way we can ever repay someone for putting their life on the line to defend our freedoms. There's no way to give these men and women back the nights they spend huddled in a fox hole, on the front lines or far away from their families.

We cannot give back eyesight, legs or arms to those who lost them to grenades or enemy fire. Many of them volunteered, but has the price they paid ever felt personal to us or are they just names in a news release?

I was in the airport over the weekend, and I saw a soldier waiting for a flight. She was on the other side of the security ropes, and I wondered about her life. Perhaps she'd just visited her family and that was the last time she'd see her loved ones.

Would she be one of the soldiers called upon to give everything to defend my freedom? There is no way I could ever repay that debt unless I honor what she puts her life on the line to fight for.

Americans need to stand whenever the American flag passes our way. We need to support our soldiers for the choice they made to do their duty to their country and ours.

We need to remember to say thank you whenever we see a soldier and to continue to believe that freedom is a sacred responsibility every one of us is required to safeguard in our own way.

Most importantly, we need to remember that these soldiers are men and women who made the choice to step up to the line for you and me.

That's no longer a line in a news release or a statistic in a history book. That price, that soldier, that choice, is someone's son, daughter, mother, father or friend.

Let's hope we make the price they're paying worthwhile.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.