Staff Sergeant Eric Thomas Duckworth

This is a post I have been thinking about for several weeks and still don't quite know how to approach. Last fall was a difficult one. It started with the loss of Aubrey and got more personal from there. There was the death of an aged but loved great aunt, an old family friend of my grandmother, and then the shock to top them all.

The evening of Oct. 10 I had just gotten home when I got a call from my mom. She sounded kind of strange, almost like she was talking in her sleep, all I could understand was Eric...car...dead. I at first thought she must be talking about my husband, but he was standing right there. I listened a minute more and I started to understand. She wasn't dreaming, though I wish she were, she was in shock. She wasn't talking about my husband she was talking about my cousin, my cousin the soldier, my cousin serving in Iraq. All of a sudden it was all too clear. Eric was serving as a security officer and frequently traveled with convoys, Eric had been hit by a roadside bomb. Eric was dead.

It still doesn't seem possible. He had a wife, kids, why?? Some questions just don't have answers. This loss I am still struggling with. When Aubrey died, we got to say good bye, we attended a funeral, we greived as a "family". When Eric died the family went off to Colorado, and Texas, and Arlington, they had memorials, and funerals and grieved together. I stayed in Salt Lake, I went to work, and I stayed quiet because I had several co-workers with husbands in Iraq. My parents came home, they told us a little about the service in Colorado where he had been stationed, and life went on. Except there is still that hole, that tender spot that refuses to heal.

This was not the last hit our poor family took last year, Eric was followed shortly by a great uncle, and then an uncle a few months later. I am hoping we have had all the tragedy we are going to see for a while. I am tired of greiving, the why's and the if only's. Sorry, I hadn't intended this to be about me, but to be about Eric, and his sacrifice for our family, and our country. I know some of you out there are against the war, but to me this isn't about the war, at least not today. Today this is about someone who had the courage to face danger and serve our country, as he was asked, to the best of his ability. This is about someone who knew he wasn't coming home, but went anyway.

This is one of many articles published last year about Eric. This one came from the Washington Post.
A 'Tremendous Leader' Lost
Staff Sergeant on 1st Tour Would Have Come Home Next Month
Wednesday, October 24, 2007; Page B03
A week before his 27th birthday, family and friends of Eric Thomas Duckworth gathered to honor him for a different reason. They came together yesterday to mourn him as he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Army Staff Sgt. Duckworth, 26, of Plano,Tex., died Oct. 10 in Baghdad when a makeshift bomb detonated near his vehicle. He was the 391st member of the military killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.


Duckworth entered the Army at 18, almost immediately after graduating from Clear Lake High School in Houston.He was on his first deployment to Iraq, which began in August 2006 and would have ended next month.
"He wanted to serve his country; he wanted to make a difference," his mother, Ila Duckworth, told the Dallas Morning Newslast week. "He felt honored to serve his country."
Duckworth's family told the newspaper that he excelled in JROTC during high school and was selected to attend a national ROTC meeting for outstanding leaders. He loved sports, especially the Dallas Cowboys and NASCAR.
He was a friendly and lively guy.
"He made friends easily," his mother told the Morning News. "He was also very much a family man."
Messages posted on the online tribute site, Legacy, were similar. People who knew him described him as a "great man," "tremendous leader" and "extremely dedicated."
"I was a loser, but he was a straight arrow -- a good kid," one friend wrote. "I looked up to him." Another said that "He was a phenominal soldier and an even better leader."

Yesterday, more than 120 mourners gathered under a gray, cloudy sky threatening rain to say goodbye to Duckworth. American flags were given to his widow, Sonya Lynn Duckworth, and his parents. Among the mourners were his daughter, Madison, 4, son Michael, 1, and stepdaughter Kaylynn, 10.
Kaylynn sat in the front row of seats at the end closest to the firing party that was part of the service. She was the first to stand as they prepared to fire their volleys, but as the seven soldiers fired the first of three shots each, she crumbled to the ground. Another mourner knelt to comfort her, but she was visibly shaken by the sound. Secretary of the Army Pete Geren made his way to Kaylynn, kneeling to speak with her.
Duckworth was assigned to the 759th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, based at Fort Carson Colo. During his more than eight years of military service, he received numerous awards, including the Army Service Ribbon and the National Defense Service Medal.

I don't know how to load photos from the web, and I doubt I could do it from work anyway, but here is the memorial site hosted by Arlington National Cemetery. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/etduckworth.htm. Thanks for reading my ramblings, I promise I'll be better next week.