Salute To Lori Piestewa

MoonHowler

Flag and Feathers

Three days into the Invasion of Iraq, in the wee hours before dawn, Lori Ann Piestewa (py-ESS-tuh-wah) knew something was wrong. The convoy had taken a wrong turn. They were not in the desert but just outside the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. An ambush ensued. Eleven soldiers were killed and 9 wounded. Several, including Lori’s best friend, Jessica Lynch, were taken POW. Lori Piestewa was one who was killed. She was not only the first woman killed in the Iraqi War, but she was the first Native American woman killed in the Iraqi War.

Lori, a Hopi Indian, was born and raised in Tuba City, AZ which is in the Navajo Nation. Like many young Native Americans, Lori had been in the JR ROTC program during high school and after graduation, married, had 2 children, divorced, moved back home and then joined the military.

On March 23, 2007, The Lady Warrior was honored by the renaming of Squaw Peak near Phoenix, to Piestewa Peak. To think it took the death of the brave young Native American woman to get rid of the term ‘squaw’ when referring to a landmark is unconscionable. The highway that passes near the mountain peak was also named in her honor—Piestewa Freeway.

There has been much discussion on this blog of political correctness and the use of certain terms. I often think we gag ourselves over political correctness. Then again, 2007—Squaw Peak—how inappropriate—how insulting to women—Native women. Why should someone have to die to have the crap stopped? Is political correctness just good manners?

I went to Tuba City fairly shortly after Lori’s death, as a silent pilgrimage to a brave woman. Tuba City is worn. Like many Native American towns, it is rife with poverty and unemployment. The townspeople stared at my traveling companion and me. We do not look Indian. I am certain they wondered why we were there. I didn’t bother them. I just wanted to pay my silent respects to the Native Lady Warrior. Ray Powell does it with more class:

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To donate:

Lori Piestewa Memorial Fund
Wells Fargo
2625 N. 4th St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86004

The Iraq War: Shock and Awe to a quiet…its over

MoonHowler

The Iraq War is over.  President Obama announced the end of the war at Fort Bragg yesterday.  The official date of the end of the war is today, December 15.  The colors have been cased.  Secretary Panetta addressed Iraq and remaining troops.  Iraq is a fully sovereign nation without military occupation.

 The Iraq War is one of our longest wars.  It started off as the shock and awe bombing of Baghdad and Americans were glued to their TVs, watching the spectacle.  We watched our troops enter Iraq and begin their long trek across the desert.  We honored our dead, those early victims of the war like Hopi warrior Lori Piestewa and captive Jessica Lynch who was rescued.  We donned our Support the Troops attire  and we saw anti-war icons like Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan on TV nightly.  But something detached.

Us.  We, the civilians, never really were a part of this war.  Unless we were a military family, we didn’t participate.  We didn’t sacrifice.  We didn’t alter our every day lives.  The war was 8 years, 8 months and 25 days long.  We didn’t engage our souls or follow the troops.  It was ‘their’ war, not ours.  

So it is over.  The players have all changed.  Very few great ‘stars’ came out of this war.  There were no Ikes, Pattons,   ‘Chestys’ or Westmorelands.  To my knowledge, former President Bush has not commented or spoken of the end of the war.  I saw no headlines, no nurses being kissed in Times Square and no ticker tape parades. 

How many lives were lost?  Over 4,000?  How many of our troops suffered life- altering injuries during that war?  Over 30,000?  How many mothers and fathers  missed seeing their children grow up because of a war that refused to be over?  How many kids felt the absence of a parent?  Unless we were a military family, we didn’t feel those things.  We barely feel them as a nation.  These are things that are out of our sight, sanitized, barely trotted out on Veterans Day.

There is just something quietly still and quietly dead wrong.  Our military deserves more recognition, more of our thanks.  More notice, more fanfare, more SOMETHING.  Are all those people who served in the Iraq  War going to just merge back in to society without missing a beat?  Will there be jobs for them?  Will the VA be there for them with full support for their injuries, both psychological and physical at a time when our politics are fighting every penny spent and the national debt is on everyone’s tongue? 

We, as a nation, need a National Day of Recognition for those who have given so much.  We who barely gave at all need a special day to say thank you and to honor those who gave given 8 years, 8 months and 25 days so that we didn’t have to give at all.  We need to do it sooner rather than later. 

 

All Gave Some, Some Gave All

MoonHowler

Same song, different video. The video below is of our American troops who have lost their lives. It puts faces to our national loss. Very touching. I hope you have time to view both.

 

 

All of us know at least one person who has given his or her life for our country.  This thread  is dedicated to those we knew.  Please post about someone you knew.  If you don’t know someone, please remember a stranger or someone who touched your heart in some way. 

My stranger would be Lori Piestewa, the Hopi woman who was killed in the early days of the Iraq War.

My people I knew would be my classmate Charlie Milton-Vietnam War and Corporal Brian Medina, United States Marine Corps, class of 2002 Gar-Field HS (Iraq);