Make sure your feelings will endure

Make sure your feelings will endure
By Anna Showalter, Special to Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, June 15, 2008

On Nov 8, 2007, 5-year-old Isaiah Sky Rogers was left behind when his daddy died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash near Treviso, Italy.

It took everyone by surprise because my son, Staff Sgt. Robert Daniel Rogers, was an avionics sensor technician but was chosen to take part in this training flight as a reward. Five others lost their lives as well. What legacy have they left for their loved ones?

We have a precious photo of my son holding his son. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but too many things were left unsaid.

We have plenty of pictures and some video footage. However we don’t possess any recording of my son’s voice with his last wishes or any fatherly instructions, guidance or expressions of love. There is no heart-to-heart talk, no simple "be a good boy" or "stay out of trouble."

Why? My son was healthy and was neither in nor going to a war zone, so there was no urgent reason for having such vital recording made.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=55567