Major Andrew Olmsted - R.I.P.

Army Major and blogger Andrew Olmsted was killed in an ambush in Iraq. Captain Thomas J. Casey was killed in the ambush as well. They were the first US casualties in Iraq in 2008.

Here's the story: Rocky blogger Major Andrew Olmsted killed in Iraq

Here's his Iraq blog at Rocky Mountain News: Major Olmstead - From the Front Lines

And here's his personal blog. He had asked a good friend to put up a final post that he had written in the event of his death in Iraq. She did so. It's titled, simply, Final Post. Here's how he begins:

"I am leaving this message for you because it appears I must leave sooner than I intended. I would have preferred to say this in person, but since I cannot, let me say it here."
G'Kar, Babylon 5

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."
Plato*

This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. And so, like G'Kar, I must say here what I would much prefer to say in person.

My condolences to his wife, family, friends and colleagues. Godspeed, Major. And thank you...