Semper Fi, Nick

It was a beautiful day. The kind that makes you happy to be alive.

I got up early that Saturday morning, awakened by the birds chirping outside my bedroom window. My wife was still asleep as I crawled quietly out of bed on my way to the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee. That done, I got dressed and walked out to the mailbox to collect the mail. It was wrapped up in a copy of the Hellenic Voice newspaper. I walked back to the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee, grabbed the paper and went out to the porch to sit on a rocking chair. As I opened the paper my eyes fell on the front page photo of a young Marine. I didn't know this young man however I had seen that familiar youthful countenance and the steely determined look before. It reminded me of the faces of hundreds of Marines I had known in the course of my twenty two year career in the Corps.

Cpl.  Nick Xiarhos, U.S. Marine Corps, had been killed in action in Afghanistan.

As a father, I thought about the inconsolable grief of his parents. I thought about my own sons and about the sons we have lost and the sons we will lose. I remembered also the palpable gut-wrenching fear one feels in combat and the struggle to overcome that fear.  To do your duty and above all not let down those by your side. I wondered about where he had died and what his last moments were like.  It is said that the soul leaves the body and sets out on the road to God, tarrying for awhile among the places and people it loved. A gentle breeze blew through the leaves and the sunlight began to emerge through the trees. The words of the Orthodox funeral service swirled through my head: "O Lord give rest in a place of light, in a place of green pasture, in a place of refreshment where pain and sorrow and mourning have fled away."  I prayed silently that Nick would find just such a place and live in the presence of his Maker again.

As my family continued to sleep safely in their beds and as I sat in the stillness of the early morning, the image of Cpl. Nick's young face haunted me and my thoughts drifted to the buddies he left behind, still in harm's way. They are the only thing that stands between us and the evil that has always existed in our fallen world. A thin green line of men, very much in the image of the Byzantine soldiers known as Akrites, guardians of the frontiers. These citizen-soldiers continue to defend us, to lay down there lives for us, in spite of ourselves. We owe them all so much, a debt we will never be able to repay.

Semper fi, Nick, and God speed.

"They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

                                                   Laurence Binyon

Comments

[Becca]

One of the young men who dies with him, Aaron Fenekir was the fiance of the sister of one of our young men in a leadership development program I oversee. He too was a wonderful young man. I am thankful to see a photo of Nick and I, too, am heartbroken for these wonderful young people who are serving and dying for us and our country. Thank you for posting this.

[Stavros]

Becca,

May their memories be eternal. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.

[ismini]

Very touching post, may he rest in peace. Personally I don't understand why so many have to die in the name of what?? XRONIA POLLA on your name day. Ismini

[Global Greek World]

Lest we forget...one of my favourite poems.
War for whatever reason is such a horrible way to go. Beautiful post, Stavros and on such a special day.
Xronia Polla kai Kala!

[Kevin McEvily]

Stavros,
Having had the great joy of serving with you on three occasions, I had ascribed these very thoughts to you when I learned that Nick Xiarhos had “given the last full measure of devotion” – well before I read how beautifully you expressed them yourself.
I am encouraged to believe that these same emotions also stirred our Commander in Chief when he heard this sad news. The newspapers reported that the last duty President Obama attended to before returning to Washington from his recent vacation on Martha’s Vineyard was to visit with Nick’s family. He had briefly met the young Marine when he was down at Camp Lejeune in February to announce a strategy shift for our forces in Southwest Asia. In his remarks, the President also honored the selfless gallantry and the memory of Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter of Sag Harbor, N.Y., and Corporal Jonathan T. Yale of Burkeville, Va., relating how these brave men stood in the path of a suicide truck bomber and prevented him from entering a camp at Ramadi last year. Their sacrifice saved fifty of their fellow Marines and Iraqi police officers. Nick was one of the fifty.
Mrs. Xiarhos told reporters after the meeting that the President assured the family that he thinks of Nick and his comrades and of their burdens every time he makes a military or strategic decision. I hope that somewhat offsets the moral hazard of purchases that always must be paid for by others. Thanks for poignantly reminding us of this inescapable inequity.
Semper fi,
Mac

[Stavros]

All,

Thank you for remembering me on my name day and your kind wishes.

From what I know about Nick, he volunteered for Afghanistan after a combat tour in Iraq. As Mac points out he barely escaped death there thanks to the sacrifice of two of his fellow Marines. Nick believed in what the Allies were doing in Afghanistan, as do I. His death will only be in vain if we lose heart and abandon Afghanistan to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Regardless of what we may think about the rights and wrongs of our involvement there we should always keep in mind that men like Nick are merely doing the job assigned to them by the leaders we elect. I constantly marvel and am thankful that we still produce such men.

I am not a fan of President Obama, however, I support fully his decision to stay the course in Afghanistan.

[petros]

belated hronia polla stavro.i am sorry that i am 4 days late.
petros

[Stavros]

Many Thanks, Petros.

[DD]

Stavros:

Xronia Polla, belatedly!

Years ago, I walked through allied military cemeteries in Normandy and I must say I never felt like I did during that brief walk ever in my life.

The sacrifice of men in war gives me a huge shake. I wish we could do something, anything, to stop these young lives from being cut so abruptly.

Maybe I'm growing too old and too skeptical about conflict, save a purely defensive war to protect our homes. I know all the arguments about confronting the enemy before he touches our shores and every other theory of foreign war "to stop other wars" from reaching us etc. Still, I am not convinced that we should be jumping into the wilderness to chase after all these turbaned freaks when history is so totally unforgiving toward such adventures. This is a big subject of course... and there's no end to the argument...

Ο Θεός ας αναπαύσει τον Δεκανέα Νικ.

[Stavros]

Na se kala file,

The world has become much too small a place to ignore events in places like Afghanistan as we Americans found out on 9/11. I respect your doubts, I have a few of my own. Apparently so does President Obama, despite the rhetoric to the contrary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxi2IILt8sk