Back in February, I wrote about how I gazed at the Moon during Mike's three month tour of duty in Iraq and how it connected me to him there in Yusufiyah. Tonight, Saturday, October 28, 2007, 26 months after Mike died under a nearly full moon from a road side bomb, I again gaze at the Moon Over Yusufiyah, as it comes over the tree line to my east. For these past seven months since the publication of the original Moon Over Yusufiyah, I have had correspondence with a soldier's mom who read that piece and whose son was with the 10th Mountain Division at Yusufiyah. Since Mike's guys left Yusufiyah for new duty stations in early November 05', I did not know someone there at Yusufiyah. Sandy Bressler and her son reconnected me to Yusufiyah and I have had many opportunities to stand on my porch and gaze at the moon and offer up prayers for her son. I have had my heart sink when casualty reports signaled a loss from the 10th Mountain at Yusufiyah, especially several in just the past month. It hurts to hear these reports for they trigger a response of anguish knowing what a family is now going through. Fortunately, this mom's son was not one of the casualties.
Tonight, as I write this and watch a slightly waning, but almost still full moon rise, I have offered us a new prayer, one of thanksgiving for this mom's son, for he is now in Kuwait, and if all goes well, by the time the Moon rises over Yusufiyah on Sunday night, he will be airborne, next stop the USA. Thank you God for protecting Daniel Bressler and for the soon to be safe homecoming he will have with a new wife, his mom, dad, brother and many friends. Thank you Daniel Bressler for serving, and we will not forget your fallen brothers, or you and the service and sacrifice made so we may continue to live free.
Maybe one day, if God chooses to grant me a special blessing, I can go to Yusufiyah and see the place where my son served and which his fellow soldiers took it upon themselves, in defiance of the orders of Baghdad, to rename FOB Stokely. It is important to me to go to the place where my son fell the night he died, kneel, and touch the soil and breathe the air. Maybe, just maybe, I might even be able to do it even as the Moon over Yusufiyah rises.
Robert Stokely
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 Aug 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
US Army E Troop 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG
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