Georgians KIA in Iraq Part One: Army Spc. Jamaal R. Addison

Army Spc. Jamaal R. Addison Died: March 23, 2003

22, of Roswell, Ga.; assigned to the 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas; killed in an ambush near Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Specialist Addison's mother, Patricia M. Roberts, set up a foundation in his name "as a means of honoring his service and life. The JAMF's primary focus is to offer opportunities for positive growth and expose youth to the wide options available to them to lead successful lives."

Addison attended Henderson High School from eighth to 10th grade, then went to Lakeside, where he was a member of the Junior ROTC and graduated with a college prep degree. Relatives fondly described Addison as the family's computer guru. His enlistment in the military came as a surprise to his ROTC instructors at Lakeside.

"I had no idea he was going into the Army," said Lt. Col. Sydney Sider, 58, a senior Air Force ROTC instructor at Lakeside High. "The last talk we had was that he was going to college."

But Sider added that Addison had the strength and character to be successful in the military.

"He was a very nice young man ... and a very good student," Sider said. "He was good in ROTC. I just wish I had him a little longer." Spec. Addison was a straight-A student who joined the Army days after graduating from high school to secure a future for his infant son.
He was deployed to Iraq just after his wedding to Tek'la, and they have a seven-year-old son (Jamaal II) and eight-year-old daughter (Christian).

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said March 26, 2003 that the 507th Maintenance Company ran into a heavily armed Iraqi combat unit that included two tanks and automatic weapons when it made the wrong turn near An Nasiriyah.

Spec. Addison's stepbrother, Rodney Fisher, was quoted in an LA Times article as saying "I never thought there was a reason to go to war in the first place. This sure as hell doesn't make it any better. This was a good man. He didn't deserve this. This whole thing is nonsense."
It should be noted that Spec. Addison was said to have been fully in favor of the war.

Related: Inspiration

New Series

The Glynn Peace Memorial Day helmet display (which was very well-received, BTW) has inspried me to start a new series. This will actually be my first series, so, yeah. Anyway, I have decided to post at least weekly about one of the service members from Georgia who has been Killed in Action during the war in Iraq. There are, unfortunately, more than a hundred of them, so it will take a while. Look for it soon.

Memorial Day event

Memorial for Georgians Killed in the Iraq War
WHEN: MEMORIAL DAY - May 26, 2008

TIME: Noon - 8 p.m.

WHERE: Casino Pool (southside) in Neptune Park, St. Simons Island

GlynnPeace held its first memorial exhibit at Mary Ross Park in October 2007 (see attached photos). A month later, it was held for 2 days at Hanover Square in downtown Brunswick. The last exhibit was at the State of Change Tour Concert at the Gazebo in Mary Ross Park on April 5, 2008. This event was organized by the GlynnPeace - Youth Division.

The exhibit consists of white stakes and camo helmets with the hometowns of the soldiers. Our first exhibit honored 122 Georgians and in April the count was 127. As of May 18, the count is 129.
* * * * *

The number of U.S. soldiers and contractors killed in Iraq is starting to show up differently at major newspapers and databases. We already know the number of U.S. soldiers and contractors killed and wounded is severely underreported. As are those who have committed suicide both in Iraq and here at home.

Please note that U.S. soldiers and contractors in Iraq number just about the same.

Reluctantly taking the summer off from teaching

Well, for the first time since they hired me at the last minute a few years ago, I am not teaching at the college. My summer class didn't get enough students, so I have more free time, and less money to enjoy it. Anyone need a babysitter? Petsitter? Plasma? Seriously, that damn economic stimulus rebate better show up in my bank account soon!

Happy Mothers Day

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe, Boston 1870
Writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and founder of Mothers Day for Peace, with the above proclamation. Let us not forget the true meaning of Mothers Day.