Gardens of Stone
Joseph Urbas, at home with his motherbefore deployment to Vietnam, 1969
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Ranger wants to discuss Captain's Joseph W. Urbas and James Donald Reid, both Special Forces, both CIB recipients, two old friends now gone in as many years. This is a meditation on their lives and deaths.
Reid lived his military experience every day of his life, right until the end. It seem a bit campy, but I think he was dead serious. For instance, the reading material in his guest bedroom included the entire Program of instruction for SFOC, Improvised Explosives and Incendiaries and the Ranger Handbook. Dissonantly, there was a copy of "Random Acts of Kindness" on the bedside table, courtesy his wife, I'm sure. A picture of him standing over dead bodies graced the wall.
Reid's living room featured a photo of POW Nick Rowe in a bamboo cage. I used to tell Reid, "If I didn't have PTSD when I arrived, I most certainly would when I left." He also kept his 7" SOG Recon knife next to his bed, for reasons I do not need to know.
Urbas was more the serious type. Both were exposed to the carcinogenic defoliant Agent Orange in 1970-71 in the Republic of Vietnam. Reid died of diabetes-related organ failure, and Urbas of oral cancer which spread to his jaw and lymph nodes.
Reid was rated 100% VA service-connected medically disabled, and had Tri-care and VA medical coverage that addressed his medical concerns. The DVA covered Reid's Service-connected illness to an admirable extent; no bitch there.
Joe was another matter. He never received any presumption of service-connection for his cancer. Joe died a poor man, living solely on a VA pension which was less than $800 per month.
Both men smoked incessantly as far back as I can go. Admittedly, exposure to Agent Orange is not a good thing, but why did these healthy, intelligent men engage in a form of long-term suicide by a daily smoking habit?
Why expend medical assets on Reid and Urbas when their actions are so self-destructive? Both were good men, but smoking did not help Reid's diabetes abate, and very possibly caused Joe's too-early demise.
So much of our behavior is self-destructive. Whether a society which allows for deferment of responsibility is to blame, or big bucks advertising depicting the glamorous life to accrue to one via smoking or drinking, or whether our naivete is the cause, we are culpable at bottom for much that happens or doesn't in our lives whether we realize it or not.
Life is a guessing game and one of chance, but excessive high-risk activity is a one-way express ticket to the graveyard. I'm not even sure why I wrote this. Possibly out of frustration seeing friends hasten their own demise.
Reid lived his military experience every day of his life, right until the end. It seem a bit campy, but I think he was dead serious. For instance, the reading material in his guest bedroom included the entire Program of instruction for SFOC, Improvised Explosives and Incendiaries and the Ranger Handbook. Dissonantly, there was a copy of "Random Acts of Kindness" on the bedside table, courtesy his wife, I'm sure. A picture of him standing over dead bodies graced the wall.
Reid's living room featured a photo of POW Nick Rowe in a bamboo cage. I used to tell Reid, "If I didn't have PTSD when I arrived, I most certainly would when I left." He also kept his 7" SOG Recon knife next to his bed, for reasons I do not need to know.
Urbas was more the serious type. Both were exposed to the carcinogenic defoliant Agent Orange in 1970-71 in the Republic of Vietnam. Reid died of diabetes-related organ failure, and Urbas of oral cancer which spread to his jaw and lymph nodes.
Reid was rated 100% VA service-connected medically disabled, and had Tri-care and VA medical coverage that addressed his medical concerns. The DVA covered Reid's Service-connected illness to an admirable extent; no bitch there.
Joe was another matter. He never received any presumption of service-connection for his cancer. Joe died a poor man, living solely on a VA pension which was less than $800 per month.
Both men smoked incessantly as far back as I can go. Admittedly, exposure to Agent Orange is not a good thing, but why did these healthy, intelligent men engage in a form of long-term suicide by a daily smoking habit?
Why expend medical assets on Reid and Urbas when their actions are so self-destructive? Both were good men, but smoking did not help Reid's diabetes abate, and very possibly caused Joe's too-early demise.
So much of our behavior is self-destructive. Whether a society which allows for deferment of responsibility is to blame, or big bucks advertising depicting the glamorous life to accrue to one via smoking or drinking, or whether our naivete is the cause, we are culpable at bottom for much that happens or doesn't in our lives whether we realize it or not.
Life is a guessing game and one of chance, but excessive high-risk activity is a one-way express ticket to the graveyard. I'm not even sure why I wrote this. Possibly out of frustration seeing friends hasten their own demise.
Labels: agent orange, james d. reid, joseph w. urbas, smoking
posted by rangeragainstwar at 3:39 PM
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