Reflecting on his own service in the war, U.S. Marine Captain Bingham Jamison tries to find meaning in the story of Spc David Emanuel Hickman, the last American to die in the Iraq war.
What does it mean to be the last person to die in a war? The death itself is certainly symbolic, the last chapter of a book most Americans would like to close and forget. But what is it about Hickman being so close to coming home that makes his death sting so deeply? Hickman’s death is no more tragic than any of our other combat dead, but its proximity to our withdrawal makes it seem almost preventable. When we mourn his death, we are heartbroken by what could have been. According to Marcus Aurelius, “It is not the young man who misses the days he does not know. It is us, the living, who bear the pain of those missed days.”
Make sure to read the whole thing.