Today I opened my Facebook and I am just scrolling through people posting videos of cute dogs, pictures of their babies and statuses about the heat.... And I come across this picture.
This sailor died this morning after being shot in Chattanooga, TN. He was shot in the stomach, arm, and back. He was 24 and married.
4 years older than my husband.
He was on land.
You see for a sailor's wife, we only worry when they are out to sea. We don't have to worry about when they are on land. They are safe in our minds.
Now I don't know all the details of the shooting, I really cannot handle reading through the reports right now. But this I do know, one of the Marines was texting his girlfriend about visiting....
I have been there. I have been the girlfriend on the other end of the phone making plans to see my now husband. I have been in her shoes... Except now, he is dead. I can almost feel her devastation as if it were my own.
"That could have been Cody. That could have happened to me."
Everyone can relate to this shooting in some way or another. If you have a husband, boyfriend, son, or even just a friend, you can put yourself in this situation. "What if I lost someone I loved? What if I was the one mourning on the other end?"
But there is one reason why this is hitting me so hard...
This man was wearing my husband's uniform.
He is wearing dress whites.
Cody got married in his dress whites.
It becomes very real when you see a picture of a man who could very well be your husband.
When you can easily replace his face with your husband's because you have seen that uniform time and time again...
I have sewed his new ranks on that uniform, I have taken that uniform to the dry cleaner's.
I know that uniform.
But I know it on my husband.
This man was a second-class.
Cody is a second class.
This sailor was an E5, the same rank that my husband just got a few months ago that we celebrated for.
We just celebrated Cody receiving second class.
I could have been the mourning wife.
I know what I married into.
I know that I married into the worry and the possibility of being a widow at a very young age.
I know all that.
But he is in the Navy...
So you assume that he is safer than those in combat situations.
There are rarely pictures that circle the internet of sailors who have died.
And then one day...
You realize that it could have been you in that wife's shoes.
You realize that your pretty world could be taken down in one second by a mad man.
You realize that your husband could die.
And that day could be today.
Or tomorrow.
Or in a couple years when we are on shore duty and he is no longer going out to sea.
You never feel like it is going to happen to you, until it does.
So please share this picture, honor the fallen, honor the marines who lost their lives as well...
But every time you like this picture or see it on Facebook, or read about it in a news article, please remember that he has a wife at home.
A wife who is now a widow.
Who wishes that she would have kissed him one more time that morning.
Who is praying that he knew she loved him.
Who is beating herself up for all the dumb fights she ever picked and wishing that she could take back every harsh word ever said.
She is dying inside, knowing she will never have one more day with him.
There will be no "after the Navy" life for them.
There will be no retirement, no growing old, no civilian job, no normal life.
And also...
Remember that this is enraging servicemen all over the country right now.
Remember that we all feel this personally as if it was our own men who had died.
Remember that they are messing with the wrong country.
Rally behind your military. Please. Lift their spirits. Buy their meals. Thank them for their service. Please. Because I know how discouraging it can get and I also know how one kind act from a stranger can make you remember why you are fighting for this country.
Please honor this fallen man and the other 4 marines who died along with him.
Because the fact that it could have been this picture circling the news right now is more difficult than I can put into words for you.
