KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marine Sgt. William Stacey was killed earlier this year by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan,
a tragedy for which he prepared by writing a letter to his family
explaining why he was fighting that was to be read in the event of his
death.
The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, read
the 23-year-old's letter during a Memorial Day service Monday in Kabul
in memory of all the troops who have died in the country since the war
started in 2001."Today we remember his life and his words, for they speak resoundingly and timelessly for our fallen brothers and sisters in arms," said Allen, who also leads the NATO coalition in Afghanistan.
Stacey was on his fourth
deployment to Afghanistan when he was killed on January 31 in Helmand
province. The young Marine from Redding, California, told his family
that he was motivated to fight in Afghanistan to protect the country's
children and provide them the opportunity to go to school and live out
their dreams.
"There will be a child who will
live because men left the security they enjoyed in their home to come to
his," Stacey wrote in his letter. "He will have the gift of freedom
which I have enjoyed for so long myself, and if my life brings the
safety of a child who will one day change the world, then I know that it
was all worth it."
Stacey deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 1st Marine Division out of Camp Pendleton, California.
At least 1,851 members of the
U.S. military have died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led
invasion in 2001, according to the latest Associated Press count.
Allen said that since he took
over command in Afghanistan in July 2011, at least 251 American troops,
76 other NATO coalition members and 1,296 members of the Afghan security
forces have been killed in the country.
Three more members of the NATO
coalition were killed Monday, two in a helicopter crash in the east and
one in an insurgent attack in the south, the force said.
During Monday's ceremony at NATO
coalition headquarters, Allen helped lay a large wreath at the base of a
pedestal holding a battlefield cross — the traditional memorial to a
fallen soldier, constructed using the troop's boots, rifle, helmet and
dog tags. Allen stepped back and crisply saluted as Taps played over a
speaker.
Support for the Afghan war has
waned in the U.S. and other countries in the coalition as casualties
have mounted and progress has seemed elusive. The U.S. plans to transfer
security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and
withdraw most of its combat troops by the end of the following year.
Despite the human cost of the war, Allen said the soldiers who have fallen did not die in vain.
"While our brothers and sisters
fell in a place far from home, far from their families, the values for
which they stood and for which they lived and for which they died occupy
an enduring place in our hearts," said Allen. "Those values: freedom,
duty, selflessness and sacrifice."
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