Lee Bush, assistant professor of communications, wrote a column that appeared in the Wednesday, Jan. 31 edition of the Greensboro News & Record.
The column is an open letter of thanks to U.S. soldiers in a unit from Fort Bragg, N.C. The unit is currently deployed in Iraq.
“Most of all, you amaze us!” Bush writes. “We cannot imagine being the one to say, ‘I will go’—to leave behind the comfort of our soft beds and warm kitchens, the evenness of our ordinary days and undisturbed nights, to volunteer for a distant duty that would continually put us in harm’s way. There is a mysterious quality to that kind of courage, a level of self-sacrifice and significance that most of us will never know….
“If there is one thing I can hold onto in the confusing stream of debates about the war, it is my gratitude—for your courage and your sacrifice, for taking my place and saying, ‘Yes, I will go.’
“I see you. I know. And I am grateful.”