Milblog Revisited

The very first blog post I read on the milblog was incredibly touching, and very depressing, to me. It was posted by a registered nurse working in a civilian military hospital. She first wrote about September 11 and how she feels like most people have forgotten about the attacks. She wrote about the lack of events held in memory of the attacks, and how each year the number of events becomes fewer and fewer. I was just thinking about that a few days ago. I think it is terrible that the memory of 9/11 keeps fading in the minds of so many people, and it must hurt tremendously for those who lost loved ones or were involved in the attacks to know that so many people are forgetting the real significance of that day.


After her comments about 9/11 she wrote about a soldier who was discharged and allowed to return home to spend the remaining few months of his life with his family and friends. He was dying of cancer and there was nothing that anyone could do except make him comfortable. I know from experience what it is like to have loved ones with cancer, and what it is like to lose loved ones to cancer. I cannot imagin, however, what it must have been like for his family to worry about him losing his life fighting at war, then learning that he survived war only to die of cancer.

Then she wrote about a soldier who was dying and whose organs were to be donated upon his death. Some of hte doctors involved only seemed to think of him as an organ, not as a human being or a soldier who fought fr his country. I understand the importance of organ transplantation, but I was appalled at the lack of sensitivity and respect for the soldier and his loved ones.

She also commented about how many soldiers she has seen lie in bed unable to wake from a coma, and the struggle that families must go through when this happens to a member of their family. I can't imagine being in this nurse's position, seeing soldiers in those situations. She must have a lot of strength and a lot of loved ones around her to keep her strong.