by Associated Press
11 Mar 2003
Mom & Dad,
Well if you are reading this, then things didn't go well for me over in Iraq. I'm sorry for the pain that I have caused you because of this. Please do not be upset with the Marine Corps, the military, the government, or the President. It was my choice to go into the military. The President and my higher commanders were just doing what they thought was best. Realize that I died doing something that I truly love, and for a purpose greater than myself. There is a paragraph that I read from time to time when I lose focus.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself" -- John Stewart Mill
Now there is a little Marine Corps bravado in there, but I do believe in the basic premise.
I want you to know that I could not have asked for better parents, or a better family. Alyse, Kari, Chris and I never wanted for anything ... most of all love. I cannot think of a time when you two were not there for us. I'll never forget that one of my friends in elementary school said that if he could trade places with one person, he'd trade places with me because of my parents and home life. I truly feel that I've had a blessed life thanks to you two. Please give my love to Alyse & Ryan, Kari & Matt & and the girls, Chris & Brandy, and everyone else in the family.
All my love,
Ryan
The History of The Green Beret
Aaron Bank started out as a former lifeguard and would travel around the world to do as much lifeguarding as possible, and ended up learning fluent French and German.
Seeing war coming, he returned to the U.S. and joined the army, and in 1943 stepped forward when the call went out for foreign-language-speaking volunteers for "special assignments".
Among other missions, he parachuted into France in advance of the Normandy invasion to organize French Resistance forces to slow down German reinforcements.
Bank so excelled in his Office of Strategic Services role that after the war he was asked to put together a new military unit for special operations.
In 1952, he recruited 2,300 men for the first Special Forces unit. "I wanted none but the best," Bank said later.
He asked that his new unit get to wear a special beret to set them apart--purple, wine-red or green, but military regulations wouldn't allow it until President John Kennedy issued a special order. Kennedy wanted green because he was an Irishman."
Taken from the JFK Green Beret Museum at Fort Bragg, NC
|
Letter that Marine Captain Ryan Beaupre wrote for his parents to read if he died in the Iraq war. Captain Beaupre died March 21, 2003 in the war's opening hours.
