R.E.D. Friday - Remember Everyone Deployed!

U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Arias patrols past a group of Afghan children while providing security in a rural area near the Nangarhar Police Regional Logistics Center in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, Jan. 6, 2015. Arias is assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, Train, Advise, Assist Command East. U.S. Army photo by Capt. Jarrod Morris.

Brain Injured Veterans Use Masks to Heal Inner Wounds

Army Staff Sgt. Perry Hopman, who served in Iraq from 2006-2008, confronts the battery of medications he takes daily for blast-force injuries he sustained while treating soldiers as a flight medic. "I know my name, but I don't know the man who used to back up that name." Photo: Lynn Johnson/National Geographic
These "Healing Our Soldiers" images from the February, 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine will take your breath away. They photo essay may be viewed online here.

We Are Soldiers

In Loving Memory
PFC Gunnar Becker
January 22, 1985 - January 13, 2005


The following poem was written during the 19th and final year of Gunnar's life. He was laid to rest on his 20th birthday. His life was short, but full of love and meaning for all who knew him - and for many more who didn't.

We will love and remember him always.

We are soldiers.
We are soldiers in the United States Army.
We are trained to be all we can be.

We fight for the freedom of many citizens of the United States. We are all ready to meet our fates.

We all volunteer to defend the red, white and blue.
Not only the flag, but for the citizens of our great country too.

Since our country's birth for all these years,
we have been trained to be the best on Earth.

Many times we have went to war.
We will be involved in many more.

Generation by generation soldiers continue to enlist.
Some of us will go to war and definitely be missed.

Some soldiers will return and some won't.
Those who do not, we won't forget and we hope you don't.

Many of us are going to Iraq.
Some of us won't be coming back.

We have loved ones we are leaving behind.
They will always be in our prayers, hearts and mind.

If we don't make it home safely at the end of the war,
just remember we died defending the beliefs of those of many more.


- Gunnar Becker

R.E.D. Friday - Remember Everyone Deployed!

A C-17 transports medical equipment and personnel to Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The 10th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, based at Ramstein, is responsible for transporting critically ill or injured patients from deployed locations. U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Katherine Tereyama/RELEASED. 12/17/2014.

Winter at Arlington

The first snowfall of the year blankets wreaths adorning the graves in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., Jan. 7, 2015. The Memorial Amphitheater, which is the venue for numerous ceremonies honoring service members, can be seen in the background. Arlington National Cemetery photo by Stephen Smith.