Monday.
Qal-ah-ye Mirza Jal, Afghanistan.
Enemy combatants attacked a PATROL of the Indiana National Guard with RPGs.
Circumstances unknown, but Arronn Fields of Terre Haute died his his wounds suffered in this engagement in a town that even I can’t pronounce and Goggle maps couldn’t find in its search engine. The 27 year-old was the 23rd Indianan to die in that war since 2001.
The Pentagon no longer sends a car to inform the family about their fallen son or daughter. Arronn’s father received a phone call near midnight. The ex-military man told the Banner Graphic that the family was devastated by the news, but also added that, “We’d fish. It was a time for him and I to reflect on life. We spent just about every spring and summer in the evening fishing. He was a good fisherman.”
Their loss did not make CNN, NBC, or Fox News, but as his father said, “But I believed he died doing something he wanted to do. He wanted to be there. He’s a hero.”
And one more death in the war that will not end soon enough.
Arronn Fields RIP