Final Reflections on Memorial Day

This is the last blog in my series on Memorial Day.  As Anthony J. Angelone recounted the service of and Scott Castillo gave us his account of journey from a professional football player to a U.S. Army Ranger, I will share my memories of Corporal Joshua C. Watkins.   

Joshua and I served in T.O.W. platoon (an infantry occupation), 2d Tank Battalion, 2d Marine Division as enlisted men.  We were not close friends but did share a beer, a laugh, and certain laborious assignments together (the latter euphemistically called a “working party” in Marine lingo).  In addition, both he and I aspired to become commissioned officers in the Marine Corps.   

I left the unit in 2004 with orders to Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia.  He deployed to Iraq with my former platoon. 

After I completed my officer training, I returned to 2d Tank Battalion in 2006 as a logistics officer and motor transportation platoon commander.  I occasionally saw Joshua at our maintenance facility (“the ramp”) and around the battalion area before his second deployment to Iraq.  Later in the year, I left the unit again for a temporary assignment to Regimental Combat Team 2 (RCT-2).  I deployed with them to Iraq in December 2006.  Upon completion of my near 13-month tour, I returned to 2d Tank Battalion. 

During the summer of 2008, I began the transition process to civilian life as I neared the end of my military contract.  I was elated to begin a new chapter in my life.  With a checkout list in hand, I walked the hallways of “the ramp” for the last time.  In passing our wall of heroes (i.e., penciled portraits of our unit’s fallen Marines hung on a cinder block wall), one hero looked familiar: Joshua.  I passed the portraits at least once upon my return to 2d Tank Battalion but did not recognize his countenance (he grew a mustache).  My elation in beginning a new life left me with the realization that he lost his.  I felt nauseous and needed answers.   

Marines who served with Joshua and the battalion sergeant major told me a sniper’s bullet fell him on October 21, 2006--ten days before returning home to be reunited with his family.  The Florida Times-Union posted his story on October 24, 2006:

Marine Cpl. Joshua Watkins planned to come home from Iraq on Oct. 31, and his Jacksonville family dreamed of meeting him in a joyous reunion. They wanted to be at the base in North Carolina as he walked off the bus.

On Monday night, they changed their travel plans amid overwhelming grief. Their son was scheduled to arrive in Dover, Del., today. They wanted to be on the tarmac as his body was transported from the aircraft into a vehicle.

Watkins, 25, died Saturday after being shot in the stomach while on foot patrol in Fallujah. Military doctors struggled for four hours in attempts to save him, according to information provided to his mother, Amy Watkins-Vazquez.

"The hardest part for me is going to be to learn to live without him in my life," Watkins-Vazquez said. "Because he was everything to me. He was my life, and he was the joy of my heart. And I told him that since he was a baby, that he was the joy of my heart."

While some may revel in please pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by some of our military servicemen and servicewomen.  God bless those who defend America.