By Mike Eckburg
My heart goes out to the Ukrainian people as they defend themselves from this unprovoked attack.
Here are excerpts from The New York Times:
• Hector served two violent tours in Iraq as a United States Marine, then got out, got a pension and a civilian job, and thought he was done with military service. But recently he boarded a plane for one more deployment, this time as a volunteer in Ukraine. He checked in several bags filled with rifle scopes, helmets and body armor donated by other veterans.
Hector said he hoped to train Ukrainians in his expertise: Armored vehicles and heavy weapons.
“A lot of veterans, we have a calling to serve, and we trained our whole career for this kind of war,” he said. “Sitting by and doing nothing? I had to do that when Afghanistan fell apart, and it weighed heavily on me. I had to act.”
• All across the United States, small groups of military veterans are gathering, planning, and getting passports in order. After years of serving in smoldering occupations, trying to spread democracy in places that had only a tepid interest in it, many are hungry for what they see as a righteous fight to defend freedom against an autocratic aggressor with a conventional and target-rich army.
• When Matthew Parker, an American veteran with 22 years of service in the U.S. Army, heard that Russian forces had invaded Ukraine, he thought about a Ukrainian American soldier who had served alongside him with U.S. forces in Iraq and decided he wanted to help the Ukrainians defend their homeland.
• Hector and Matthew Parker are not alone, a representative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, D.C. said that more than 3,000 U.S. volunteers have responded to the Nation’s appeal for people to serve in an international battalion that will help resist Russia’s invading forces.
Many times those in our military feel forgotten. Let that not be so for veterans. Keep praying for them. Keep remembering them. Wherever they may be.
—Mike Eckburg, commander, Post 84