Heartbroken

This is my 100th blog post and as I type this I am heartbroken. This is not the witty, funny, cute post I had anticipated writing, instead I am grieving. Grieving for my friend, and American hero, Blue Rowe. Army 1st Sgt. Blue Rowe was with the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion and a co-worker of mine here at Northrop. Blue was killed Tuesday while on his way home for a two week leave to see his family. An i.e.d. exploded near his vehicle killing him.

Blue had been in Afghanistan since July 2008 and was rebuilding schools and hospitals in Afghanistan. We would get emails from him periodically talking about all the good he was doing there. I know he would rather be home, but if he had to be there, helping the people of Afghanistan is what he wanted to be doing. Every email he sent to us detailed all the positive things going on there. He last emailed us on April 28th to tell us he was coming home! He wrote, "I am due to take Rest and Recuperation (R&R) leave in June. I will only be home 15 days until I have to come back to Afghanistan. The good news is I am the last one to go on leave and will be redeploying to the US in late July!"

I can't believe he is not coming home.

Our management team pulled us all together and told us the news last Wednesday. I've been trying to write this blog unsuccessfully since then. Trying to type while crying is pretty pointless. I've been keeping pretty busy with packing up the apartment getting ready for the move. I found a box on the kitchen table that was all ready to go to be sent out to Blue. I had planed on doing it on our upcoming off Friday. I had been sending him care packages since he left for the Middle East. The day of my wedding shower, I arrived back home and there was a package sitting on my door step. It was sent from Afghanistan from Blue. It was a thank you/wedding gift for me and Lance. He was grateful for the care packages and his note read "may all your hopes and dreams come true." He was such a great, caring amazing man. I am so angry his life was cut so short. He had already done so much good in the world, but I know he had so much good to give!

There have been a few articles posted about Blue that you can read here and here.

I've decided I'm still going to send my care packages to the area Blue was serving. I'll just address it to "soldier". I know that they will still appreciate the things that are coming their way. It's the least I can do to honor a true American hero, and a friend who will be greatly missed.

Love,
Suzanne