 |
John R. Sullivan,
Kansas, U.S. Army
Submitted by Bette Sullivan
Army Specialist John R. Sullivan is the third of my six sons. He was killed Nov. 15, 2003, in the same helicopter crash as Pierre Piche (John was also in the 626th FSB--a dang proud Rakkasan--with Pierre) and 15 other soldiers. He was 26.
My last letter from John came a week after he was killed. The letter was two sentences long. The envelope included photos of a piston cyclinder with a bullet hole and engines full of sand, along with one of him grinning and stirring the poop pot. I digress. . .
John's fraternal-twin sons, Aiden John and Gavin John, were born Sept. 10, 2003. John never got to hold them.
I've got a million things swirling through my mind even now, a year later. I think of how John would've passed gas next to the boys and said "Guess what I had for dinner," grossing them out the way he did his brothers; how he'd teach them the difference between the phillips and flathead screwdrivers by showing them + and -; and how, unlike Jenna and Barbara, the twins won't have a dad to show his loving anger when they get caught drinking underage.
And I think about my beautiful daughter-in-law Trina, who, when the boys turn three, will have to start paying $430 a year to keep up military benefits for the boys and Jade, John's 11-year-old stepdaughter. Three years from the date of death, John's family will be treated as if he had retired. So I write letters and run around screaming "But he didn't retire. . .he DIED!"
And how David, now 25, moved to Seattle to live so that he could be "Uncle Dad" to Jade and the boys.
And how Joey, the youngest, received a letter from the Selective Service System on the day John died that said he hadn't registered. Joseph Adam Sullivan had registered, so we did nothing. Joe A. Sullivan, on the other hand, had not registered, and two months ago Joe A. received a letter threatening to sic the Justice Department on him. No wonder we can't get ahead of terrorists.
And in this land of equal rights, why did Jimmy, Michael, John, David, Andy and Joe have to register when my next-door-neighbor's daughters don;t? If our government wants to keep tabs on all our fine young men, shouldn't all our fine young women have to register, too? (Including my two granddaughters.)
There's so much more I could rant and rave and laugh and snicker about, and thanks for this opportunity to vent a little.
My real reason for writing is this: Would you forward by information to Mrs. Johnson, Pierre Piche's mother? I have formed an informal group of women whose children have died in Iraq and we call and e-mail each other whenever we feel the need; I've dubbed us the "Band of Mothers."
Bette Sullivan
|
|
|
|
|
