One Mother's Son -- powerful words from a Gold Star mother.

THE WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN: THE FALLEN
ONE MOTHER'S SON
More than two years after the crash that killed John Sullivan, his mother still struggles to make sense of his death in Iraq

By Elizabeth Irene Sullivan
Published May 28, 2006

In the early evening of Nov. 15, 2003, Army Spec. John Robert Sullivan, 26, of Countryside, was killed along with 17 other members of the 101st Airborne Division when two Black Hawk helicopters went down over Mosul, Iraq.

He died eight months after the invasion of Iraq had begun and six months after President Bush had declared "Mission accomplished" on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

John was the third of my six sons.

That day should have been forgettable, a day spent doing what couples do when it's cold outside and the kids are grown or on their own. I had planned to spend a couple of hours at work, go to the market, putz around the house and then finish plans for Thanksgiving.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0605280192may28,1,3668695.story

feel or understand the sadness or the anger. But what she wrote expresses it very well.

and I agree with her...


"I thought, damn Bush."

She is so very brave for putting her feelings out there for her beloved son's memory.

:cry:

I needed that to bring me back to the reason for the day. People have no idea why we celebrate Memorial Day, other then to get furniture sales, a day off, or a barbeque. This woman's story should be screamed from every roof top in the country.

Elizabeth Sullivan writes eloquently and from the heart. The Tribune today also today continues its dedication to reporting the names of all of those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Linked below is today's long, sad list of the dead.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0605280235may28,1,2620117.story

hey how did you did the whole movie thing. i have a cd that i just brought and i want everyone to listen to it, but i don't know how to get it from the cd to this website. please help...it is a really good cd.

so many mothers of fallen soldiers are taking anti-depressants.

Thanks to Elizabeth Sullivan for writing about her experience.

.....:cry: of most beautiful articles I've ever read.:patriot: OMG :cry:

Oh, I f...ing hate that evil WH Idiot. Oh dare he and his rich spoiled daughters live in peace when he sent our brave young people to die so he can be :mad: mister f...ing pretend macho. :grr:
:rant:

"OMG, that is one of the most heart and gut wrenching but also one ..
of most beautiful articles I've ever read."!!

My heart is sobbing for Ms. Sullivan, her family, and all the families who have lost loved ones in this senseless war. :cry:

not an excuse for a three-day weekend, so we can barbecue on the grill.

I have emailed the article to my ex, whose son is planning to join the military. Her and her S.O. have been trying to talk him out of it. Maybe, just maybe this article will help him decide. See, at first, she was proud of him, but after Neil (her S.O. and father to the kid) and I talked to her, she changed her mind. Jason hasn't enlisted yet and as earlier stated, perhaps this mother's lament will help him see the light. Jesus, how can a parent, especially a mother live through this type of thing? Especially when the "administration" didn't pay for a mother's transportation to her own son's funeral. Fuck bush. It's probably a good thing the author won't see him eye to eye or she may be in jail.

Army Spec. John Robert Sullivan :patriot:

:cry: :cry: :cry:

I am going to hug my son, age 11 for a really long time. I am a grown man and yet
I feel tears ......... For the love of God get em home now.

What a tragic loss of her son's life. Her unsanitized description of grief is heart-wrenching, but so necessary.

This is a woman with strength I do not understand.

'I've been encouraged by several mothers whose children have been killed in the war to get a prescription for Zoloft or Prozac or Paxil to help me cope, but I haven't, and I won't. I want people to see how hard it is to control my emotions when I talk about John. I want to wholeheartedly laugh at Bush's silly speeches and his plots to deflect attention from Iraq. I crave the insomnia that allows me to write the speeches I have given about John and to record our family's memories of him. I don't want to be numbed. I want to feel every minute of this.'

With the exception of laughing at Bush I couldn't be further down the spectrum from her. (For reason's different than the loss of a child in the war.) I am ashamed of and try to hide my emotions, hate the insomnia, want very much to be numb and have spent years trying to forget my own angry emotions. Adopting her attitude is something I've been attempting to do but the bold concept still eludes me most of the time. I'm afraid I would wither away and die if I had to walk in her shoes.

My hatred for bush grows.

And welcome to DU.

So Sad!

My eleven year old boy came running in the house and said, "Dad, what happened, why are you crying". I told him another solder died for this stupid war. He came over and hugged me.

Most of the soldier died stories don't get me to tears. But this is so basic and simple and REAL.. FUCK BUSH AND HIS NEOCOMM AGENDA.

As is usual for me now adays as painful moments goes by all that remains is incredible hostility.

Called an America-hating treasonous traitor and other choice words. Somehow I don't think any of that will matter to her. Vicious as some people may be, their words and actions pale next to the reality of the death of her child.

Thank you for linking it.

She dismantled my heart. I need to call my sons and have them come over today. Anger and outrage will eventually return, but for now I feel a stone cold stillness.

made me sob my eyes out. Her words convey better than anyone's the true and ugly cost of this administration's warmongering and greed.

Ms Sullivan, you are the best of mothers, fighting for your son even after he is gone, fighting for sons and daughters everywhere.

K & R with tears in my eyes.

RIP John :patriot:

keeping the people from the gut-wrenching truth. These are the stories and pictures we need to see daily. Are we betraying those in service by not demanding it?

Thanks Ms. Sullivan. I am so sorry for your loss.

to meet Bush face to face,I would like to wipe my ass on his face. :mad:

Front-page across the nation !

These eloquent words from the pen of a humble, angry, righteous and grieving working class mother resound. I charge us all with the responsibility to find real leadership to right these wrongs. And where leadership wanes we should step forward to stand up and lead ourselves. Elizabeth Irene Sullivan - You deserve this and so much more that we cannot return to you. Thank you for your words.

and Branden Oberleitner's mother and, unfortunately, a whole host of them. Too damned many.

I was upset the other day and venting with a friend about all this, remembering the ONE soldier's funeral I saw covered briefly on CNN or Headline News or some such. He was Branden Oberleitner. He'd been killed in Iraq in June, 2003. Just before his 21st birthday. This was his funeral. I don't remember where in America it was. All I DO remember was the video of his mother, sitting there at graveside, having just been given the folded flag from her son's coffin. She doubled over in pain and tears and agony as she clutched it to her heart. You could see her face in profile. It was bloated and red and edemic from how hard she'd been crying, and was still crying. Her nose was big and swollen as were her lips and cheeks. She probably could hardly breathe - that's what happens to me when I cry that hard. I couldn't breathe even just seeing this news report, and her anguish. Sheer raw agony!

All I can say - whenever it is that bush finally goes to his "reward" -

Satan, GET THE BULLDOZERS!

You're gonna have to dig a whole new level of Hell for this new arrival.

she says she can't look at her other children grieving.

That is hard beyond belief. Although it was their dad & we had been divorced for many years, I tore me up to see my kids in such pain over his death.

There's just a bond between a mother & her child unlike any other. I cannot imagine having one of my kids taken from life by an insensitive, photo-op hungry, camera mugging, coke addled serial killer.

I really, really hate the neo-cons.

Now what if mothers and wives ruled the world, I have a feeling there would be less wars.

That woman is a real force. I hope we hear more from her.

Of course, the Bushites will try to do to her what they did to Cindy Sheehan. But I have a feeling it won't work in this case.

me so utterly sad..stories that didn't have to be.

Elizabeth Irene Sullivan..someone who is not in Denial about her son's death in Iraq and writes so eloquently about her and her family's Pain.

I registered so I could read the rest of her brokehearted account on this Eve to Memorial Day, 2006.

So many lives lost and broken. Just senseless.

and actually weep, as I have.:( So many stories out there like this, so many more to come.

Even if he did read it, he is incapable of empathy and it would mean nothing to him.

Dimson doesn't see the world as so many of us do. Sadly. That is his blind side.