Major Andrew Olmstead was killed in Iraq. He blogged not only from his own blog site, but for the Rocky Mountain News. He penned his own final post, to be published on his blog by a friend in the case he was killed. It went up yesterday, the day after he died.
"One of the things I will miss most is not being able to blog any longer," he wrote.
"I write this in part, admittedly, because I would like to think that there's at least a little something out there to remember me by.
It is beautiful personal publishing, a voice from the grave for all to read, and a reminder that even though it is far removed and santitized (he wrote last February about how his blogging was in voilation of a Defense Department directive), death in Iraq is made real: "Regardless of the merits of this war, or of any war, I think that many of us in America have forgotten that war means death and suffering in wholesale lots." His words live on.
photo: Rocky Mountain News
Thanks for posting this.
Posted by: Sharry | January 05, 2008 at 09:10 PM
Wow. Amazing story. Thanks for sharing. I'll probably mention it in my blog in the next few days.
Posted by: Kathy | January 06, 2008 at 12:24 AM
I'm plowing through your pages -- I don't want to stop reading to take the time to comment. I had to stop here and say, what a powerful story.
Thanks for feeding me -- I love your self-portrait above.
I wrestle with my identity quite a bit -- so many hats to wear, jobs to get done, so many other people come first -- this was wonderful to think about.
Posted by: susiej | January 07, 2008 at 08:03 AM
Thank you for this.
Posted by: Jennifer | January 07, 2008 at 08:11 AM
I'm probably the only one who thinks this is a little... ummm... creepy. I'm not faulting the dear soldier (God rest his soul) who wrote this. I just think it's kind of maudlin. The soldier didn't want people to be sad or feel bad about his fate... but how can the reader be anything else?
Well, he had the last word and that's what he wanted to do so... at least his death wish was granted.
May he rest in peace.
Love and God bless~ Pearl
Posted by: Pearl | January 07, 2008 at 08:13 AM
Thank you so much for posting this. I wrote about it (and you) in my blog today. This is very moving.
Posted by: sandi | January 08, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Man, that was the saddest thing I have ever read in my whole life. Sandi Shelton posted about this on her blog and I followed her post over here. I just can't even begin to say how deeply this affects me.
Posted by: Dorothy | January 08, 2008 at 05:20 PM
Olmsted. Not "Olmstead."
For more on Andrew, see here, here, and here.
Posted by: Gary Farber | January 11, 2008 at 10:12 AM