I found out last week that my coworker Susan’s nephew was among the soldiers deployed in Iraq. I asked what his specialty was and she said he was in a tank.
I tried to provide some comfort by telling her that the US has never lost an Abrams tank in combat, nor a crewman AFAIK. She said that that was a very reassuring thing to know.
It’s no longer true this week, but I haven’t mentioned that.
Our department has a UW student intern who comes in Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today she came in after attending a memorial service for a classmate of hers, killed in action in Iraq.
Her brother is in the reserves, and has been called up for deployment in May.