RochesterConservative.com

I just got an email from my friend Dave Jeffers. He wrote that today is the third anniversary “Hope Rides Alone”, an essay written by his son, Sgt. Eddie Jeffers. It spread like wildfire across the Internet. I strongly suggest going over to Dave’s Blog, Salt and Light, and click on the link to read it:

Flashback: Hope Rides Alone

Here’s an excerpt from “Hope Rides Alone”:

I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.

I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again…and yet, I too, am just a boy….my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid…because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.

Sgt. Eddie Jeffers was killed in Ramadi, Iraq on September 19, 2007.