Conflict and Thought

My mother called two days ago. She chatted for a while and then asked me if I had heard that Glen Martinez had been killed in Iraq.

Beginning with this news, I have been thinking, or pondering really. I received the newspaper clippings and then went online to find the following story.

http://www.alamosanews.com/V2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=&story_id=7412

I can't claim that what I feel is sorrow. I do, feel sad, for a life taken so young, for a wife who had so little time with him, for a family who loved him very much. Mostly though I feel confusion. Glen is the first person I know that has been killed in Iraq. He's not the only person I know in the military, but none of my family had gone into service and I have never been much aquainted with that part of our culture, except through a few friends who are, as they would affectionately term themselves, 'military brats'.

I attended school with Glen from 5th grade through our sophomore year in high school. He was a jock, but I can say for him, he was the less obnoxious of them and not that I ever remember was he mean. As you may figure, we did not hang out. I was smart, not gorgeous, and certainly not athletic. I did take classes with Glen though and remember especially Algebra I in 8th grade. A new class, a few advanced students from our class were chosen to take it. There were about 15 of us. Glen may not have been entirely the model student the paper mentioned, I remember him asking for my homework a time or two. I also remember that our freshman year he re-took the class. He claimed he hadn't quite gotten the grasp of it and wanted to have a better understanding before moving on.

So, I was surprised twice. Glen went on to major in Mathematics. I guess that second year of algebra did set up a solid foundation for him. And that he did it at Ottawa University in Kansas. I moved to Kansas my Junior year and attended the University of Kansas after. To think that he was 1/2 an hour away the entire time. It just seems so odd that someone else from the Valley made it all the way to Eastern Kansas too.

So I guess I am sad. I may not have known Glen very well, but I did attend school with him for years. He was a good guy, a nice guy. And as everyone has pointed out he enjoyed himself. He did have lots of fun and I know that personally he got out of lots of trouble in Spanish class by flashing that grin of his. That grin kept him out of a lot of trouble I'm sure.

I want to send out my condolences to his wife Melissa. I'm sorry you had such a short time with him. The story of how you met and he then found you later is terribly romantic. I think I hurt more for you than anything else, because the mere imagining of losing my husband after so short of a time leaves me at a complete loss.