SandBox Comments: Washington Post " What to say to ‘Thank you for your service’"

"Emerging into the sunlight, I’m leaving for work in Winchester, Va., in my Army combat uniform.

Coffee sloshes from my cup onto my bag; my patrol cap is in my hand, not on my head as it should be.

I’m a wreck. A woman I don’t know, a bit older than me, smiles. She looks as if she’s about to say, “Thank you for your service,” to which I’m never sure how to respond.

Six months ago I was in Baghdad, serving as operations chief of the Gulf Region District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Our unit oversees infrastructure rebuilding — a beautiful and expensive endeavor managing construction of schools, roads, hospitals and other big-ticket items. I was someone else six months ago, in charge of force protection, intelligence, security and combat movement across Iraq.

Then my older son, Nicholas, a charismatic and passionate 21-year-old in his third year of college, shot himself during my last week in theater.

Our unit suffered five fatalities during our year in Iraq. One individual was killed by a sniper’s single shot to the head. One person, also named Nicholas, was lost to a vehicle-borne suicide bomb. During my tenure, I learned how to receive such calls and to inform our commander. I had to be direct and calm and succinctly present the information he needed. Remaining professional during these events was difficult, especially because I was out of practice...."
(Jodi Jones Smith)

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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."