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FORT WORTH — In a few days, Francisco Martinez will land in Iraq.
When Martinez steps off the airplane, he will be in the country that took his only son, a 20-year-old skateboarder and budding graphic artist whose loss is felt every single day of his father’s life.
This deployment — in fact, his entire enlistment — is completely his doing. Nobody forced this on Martinez, except maybe the sniper who put one well-placed bullet in his son Spc. Francisco G. Martinez on March 20, 2005, in Ramadi.
Joining the Air Force Reserve, after a 17-year break in his military service, was Martinez’s way of making sense of and coping with his son’s death, a way to remember him by being around young men his age serving their nation.
Protecting others
Martinez leaves for Iraq with all the usuals — rifle, night-vision goggles, cold-weather gear, a sleeping bag, in all hundreds of pounds of gear issued by the U.S. government.
Martinez is old enough — 44 years — to be the father of many of the men he will share a trailer with in northern Iraq.
A computer programmer and systems analyst accustomed to a six-figure salary, Martinez now wears the stripes of a staff sergeant, the equivalent of a buck sergeant in the Army, pulling down half (about $4,400 a month) of what he used to earn.
He will be deployed for six months
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/753969.htm
Will this happen amongst Singporean parents?
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