Honor those who serve

This weekend, Mountain Home will throw its annual community party honoring and celebrating the men and women at Mountain Home AFB who help defend our nation with such great courage and skill.

Since 9/11 (whose 8-year anniversary is Friday), the base has seen its troops constantly deployed into the war zones, sometimes as complete units, sometimes as small detachments. There have always been at least 300 members of the airbase serving in harm's way at any given time, leaving behind even more family members who must cope with not having a father or mother, husband or wife at home for lengthy periods of time.

Let us use Saturday not only to honor those in uniform but their family members as well, whose strength and fortitude during deployments is the equal of those sent to war.

And let us not forget the members of the Idaho National Guard, who will soon be called into federal service for a second deployment to Iraq.

Many of the Guardsmen who will be standing on the sidelines watching Saturday's parade will be serving in the front lines a year from now. Their families, and the businesses where they work, also will bear the burden of the seemingly never-ending wars that began eight years ago after 9/11.

Those wars have cost this nation both treasure and precious lives. Five from Elmore County have fallen in answer to their nation's call to duty:

* MSgt. Evander Andrews, 36, of Mountain Home Air Force Base, was the first military casualty in the war on terrorism since the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on America. He died in an accident Oct. 10, 2001, while supporting operations leading up to the invasion of Afghanistan.

* Maj. Gregory Stone, 40, died March 25, 2003, in a "fragging" incident in Iraq when Sgt. Hasan Akbar threw several grenades into officer tents of the 101st Airborne Divison, just before the war began.

* Cpl. Richard P. Carl, 26, of King Hill, a graduate of Glenns Ferry High School, died May 9, 2003. He was killed when the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in which he was flying as a part of a medical rescue effort to save an Iraqi child seriously injured by a bomb, crashed into the Tigris River.

* Sgt. Virgil Case 37, a member of the Idaho National Guard's 116th BCT, died June 1, 2005, near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, from non-combat related injuries. He was the first local member of the Idaho National Guard to die in Iraq.

* USAF TSgt. Walter Moss, 37, died March 29, 2006, in Iraq, while attempting to defuse a roadside bomb. Another airman from Mountain Home AFB was wounded in the same explosion.

Wars are not fought by little red and blue flags being moved across a map. They are fought by flesh and blood human beings, and the five listed above are the faces of just some of the costs incurred when our nation goes to war. Add to those who have died the troops who have been wounded, both mentally and physically, and the cost to this nation has been enormous.

But every one of the men and women who serve in the armed forces today is a volunteer, offering their oath to defend this nation in the full knowledge of the potential personal costs.

Which is why AFAD is more than just a party. It is an opportunity -- to honor to those who serve. We hope you all show up and give them the cheers they deserve.

-- Kelly Everitt