Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
March 19, 2008
Pg. 15
By Mike and Re McClung; Edward F. Littlehales
I know that Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel and other commanding officers have a difficult time writing the "last letter home" ("The Last Letter Home: When a Soldier Falls, Commanders Face a Profound Task," page one, March 8). However, as difficult as that task may be, it is immeasurably easier to write such a letter than to read it. As recipients of one such letter and many, many others written after our daughter Maj. Megan M. McClung was killed in Ar Ramadi on Dec. 6, 2006, we have come to know her through the eyes and hearts of her friends, fellow Marines, soldiers and those who only knew her from a distance but all of whom loved her. We now know her in a detail that is usually never afforded to the parents of grown children. Thank you for the article.
Mike and Re McClung, Coupeville, Wash.
***
Nearly 60 years ago, I faced similar challenges as Lt. Col. Fenzel, and they were tough. The 382nd General Hospital received wounded soldiers from Korea's battlefields. As the hospital registrar, I was also the commanding officer of all patients. A decorated sergeant was flown to our hospital with severe burns over most of his body. His prognosis was bad. A 14-year-old daughter was his nearest of kin and, according to him, his only relative. The hospital commander found me at my desk late one night with a pencil and blank pad trying to compose that Last Letter. He told me that there was a form I could use in the Army Regs. "Just have your clerk copy it and sign it," he said. I couldn't do that, and I finally drafted the very best message I could that a child might understand and perhaps treasure.
I thought my flashbacks from World War II and Korean service were long gone, but at the end of your article, tears were streaming down this 88-year-old veteran's face. Lt. Col. Fenzel and his fellow commanders face hard tasks that never change.
Edward F. Littlehales, Venice, Fla.
Editor's Note: The article referred to appeared in the Current News Early Bird, March 8, 2008.
March 19, 2008
Pg. 15
By Mike and Re McClung; Edward F. Littlehales
I know that Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel and other commanding officers have a difficult time writing the "last letter home" ("The Last Letter Home: When a Soldier Falls, Commanders Face a Profound Task," page one, March 8). However, as difficult as that task may be, it is immeasurably easier to write such a letter than to read it. As recipients of one such letter and many, many others written after our daughter Maj. Megan M. McClung was killed in Ar Ramadi on Dec. 6, 2006, we have come to know her through the eyes and hearts of her friends, fellow Marines, soldiers and those who only knew her from a distance but all of whom loved her. We now know her in a detail that is usually never afforded to the parents of grown children. Thank you for the article.
Mike and Re McClung, Coupeville, Wash.
***
Nearly 60 years ago, I faced similar challenges as Lt. Col. Fenzel, and they were tough. The 382nd General Hospital received wounded soldiers from Korea's battlefields. As the hospital registrar, I was also the commanding officer of all patients. A decorated sergeant was flown to our hospital with severe burns over most of his body. His prognosis was bad. A 14-year-old daughter was his nearest of kin and, according to him, his only relative. The hospital commander found me at my desk late one night with a pencil and blank pad trying to compose that Last Letter. He told me that there was a form I could use in the Army Regs. "Just have your clerk copy it and sign it," he said. I couldn't do that, and I finally drafted the very best message I could that a child might understand and perhaps treasure.
I thought my flashbacks from World War II and Korean service were long gone, but at the end of your article, tears were streaming down this 88-year-old veteran's face. Lt. Col. Fenzel and his fellow commanders face hard tasks that never change.
Edward F. Littlehales, Venice, Fla.
Editor's Note: The article referred to appeared in the Current News Early Bird, March 8, 2008.