When a soldier dies

We've talked a lot about the terrible effects of the war in Iraq on this site. In this country the emphasis, quite naturally, is on the American victims, so we have tended to discuss the Iraqi victims. But a victim is a victim and war has too many of them. Our fellow ScienceBlogger Mike Dunford at The Questionable Authority know this only too well. His wife Nicole is serving in Iraq now. Many of you know Mike as the blogger here who put up the detailed guide to how we can be heard on behalf of The Tripoli 6. Now Mike is asking for our help for another worthy cause, the families of service personnel left grieving by death of their relative on active duty. Those of us not part of the military don't think often about the effect of these deaths. But an organization called TAPS (Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors) is working to help the families. Here's Mike's short version:

A death in the family is a massive tragedy, and creates a great deal of upheaval in the lives of those left behind. For the families of active duty troops, this disruption is even more massive. Besides dealing with the loss, the families frequently need to move - often to someplace where they haven't lived for years (if at all, in the case of the children). TAPS provides many forms of assistance to the families of the fallen, from grief counseling to aid with the day-to-day problems involved in re-establishing some form of normal life. The organization is not government funded, and relies on donations to do its work. (Mike Dunford, The Questionable Authority)

If you want to help you can do it by supporting the Honolulu Marathon. Honolulu Marathon?

Yes, you read that right. The Honolulu Marathon is providing them with the timing equipment, the marathon in Iraq will take place at the same time as the one in Honolulu, and the runners will be registered for and considered to be running in the Honolulu Marathon. The only difference is that the course in Iraq won't have as nice a view and will have trenches along the way for runners to use in the event of a mortar or rocket attack.

Each of these soldiers is running in memory of someone they knew who died in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and they will be raising funds for TAPS. (My wife, for example, is running in memory of her old battalion commander, who died in a plane crash in Afghanistan, and an officer with her brother's unit, who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan. (Mike Dunford, Running to Support those Left Behind)

You can donate in the name of an individual soldier (Mike's wife is Nicole Powell, listed alphabetically by first name on this site) or you can donate for the whole team effort with a general donation button here.

Most of us don't know any Iraqis killed in this war and only a few know any Americans. While I don't know Mike personally, he is a blog colleague and that is automatically a connection, through his wife, to the soldiers in Iraq. For me, that's a real connection, not different from the many I have in my community.

And it reminds me that while some of this war's victims grieve in Arabic while others grieve in English, the grief is still grief and it is very great.