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Sgt. Salie was `one of the best our country has to offer'
BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
www.krtdirect.com
All of America should join me in mourning the death Monday of Sgt. 1st Class David J. Salie.
Sgt. Salie was killed on Valentine's Day on a mean street in the Iraqi city of Baqouba, and, along with his wife, Deanna, and their three children, I'm grieving the loss of my friend.
I met David Salie in 1995 in the town of Mirabalais in Haiti. He was a tall, lanky, three-stripe buck sergeant. His battalion had been sent up from Port au Prince, the capital, to do some patrolling with the Special Forces A Team that I was reporting on.
He sat down on the curb beside me and asked me what I, a civilian of advanced years, was doing in such a place. I explained that I was a reporter who covered military affairs and gave him my name. He had read my book on the Vietnam War, and he did a double take.
We sat and talked for half an hour, waiting for the commanders to get it together for a patrol into the voodoo highlands.
David told me about his jump into Panama with the 82nd Airborne Division. His company was assigned to cover a city street between two intersections that had American checkpoints on them.
A car came through one of the checkpoints, then speeded up. The troops didn't get the word that the soldiers at the checkpoint had cleared it. Someone fired the first shot, David said, then the whole company opened fire on the car.
''I could see the faces of those people in the car as the bullets began ripping it apart,'' David said. ``I was yelling cease fire! Cease fire! But it was too late. The firepower of an entire company shot those people to pieces. They were an older couple, mother and father, rushing their pregnant daughter to the hospital to give birth to a child.''
David said he'd thought long and hard after that incident, asking himself if he could continue to serve in the Army. In the end, he decided that the right thing to do was to stay in the Army and work his way up the ranks so he could train soldiers, teaching them how to avoid such costly mistakes.
He was earnest, straightforward and sincere. He remained in our Army for all the right reasons.
His last e-mail
Now and then, out of the blue, I would receive an e-mail from Salie as he and his wife and then his kids were transferred from one Army post to another. He rose to staff sergeant and most recently sergeant first class.
His last e-mail came around Christmas. He'd lost my address, and his wife scouted around on the Internet and found it for him. He said that he was on his way to a year's deployment in Iraq and wanted to let me know.
David was in B Company, 2nd of the 69th Armor, 3rd Infantry Division. He was 34 years old -- an Army brat born in Columbus, Ga., the home of Fort Benning and the home of the infantry. He grew up there and at posts all over America and the world.
Last Thursday, Feb. 10, David and his unit entered Iraq and headed for Baqouba to relieve another Army unit that had served in combat for a year.
On Monday he and others of 2/69 Armor were being given a familiarization ride around the city. David was in the backseat of a Humvee, fourth in line in the small convoy. Someone detonated an IED -- an improvised explosive device -- just as the fourth Humvee came along. David took the brunt of the explosion and was killed instantly. The sergeant in the front right seat was badly injured, but survived.
A loving family
His wife told me that David had a premonition of his death, that he told her two months ago he felt that he would not be coming home alive.
Deanna said, ``We spent eight and a half beautiful years together. He was and will always be the love of my life. To be honest with you, I don't know how I will live without him. I don't know how to do that. How do you live when the very thing that makes your heart beat and makes you lungs take in air is gone? I don't know how. I wish someone could tell me that.''
They had three children, Chyna, 11, Deanna's child from a previous marriage whom David adopted, Luke, 6, and Hunter, 2. David carried a photo of the three of them and said: ``That's what I am fighting for.''
There will be a memorial service for Sgt. 1st Class David J. Salie at Fort Benning on Tuesday and a funeral in Columbus on Wednesday.
He was the best of the best that our country has to offer. All America should mourn his loss.
I am well aware of that! I agree completely, it is just sad that it is our finest that have to pay the price.Adam's Apple said:I hate these stories too; but as Kathianne indicated, freedom is not free and war is no gentleman's tea party.
CSM said:I am well aware of that! I agree completely, it is just sad that it is our finest that have to pay the price.
No question about that. What I meant by hating these stories is that it makes me very sad. I should have said I hate how these stories make me feel. I have seen many. many Americans and their families who have paid the ultimate price and even had the honor of knowing some of them. There is NO danger I will forget...ever!Kathianne said:I agree CSM, I think it important though that we keep them in our thoughts and more importantly, they serve as a reminder of what heroes and sacrifice are about.
