Sapper Stuart

His uniform was soaked in fuel when the Bradley exploded. He was already on fire when he went back in. On October 17, 2005, Sergeant First Class Alwyn Cashe was commanding a Bradley Fighting Vehicle on a nighttime patrol near a village in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq. An IED and simultaneous small arms fire struck the vehicle, disabling it and engulfing it in flames with soldiers still inside. Cashe escaped - then turned straight back around. The driver was trapped and burning. Cashe forced open the hatch and dragged him free, but burning fuel soaked his own uniform in the process. His clothes caught fire. He kept moving. He pushed to the rear of the vehicle, where more of his soldiers were trapped in the troop compartment. Enemy fighters noticed him and redirected fire to his position. When a nearby friendly element suppressed the enemy long enough to create an opening, Cashe stepped into the open troop door and pulled four soldiers free. Two more were unaccounted for. He went back in and got them. By the time medevac helicopters arrived, Cashe had second-and third-degree burns across the majority of his body. He refused evacuation until every other wounded soldier had been loaded first. He died on November 8, 2005 - twenty-two days atter the attack. Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor - the first Black service member from the Iraq War to receive it, a recognition that took 16 years and an act of Congress to achieve.

Lindsey Graham is the evil mastermind’s henchman in every movie we’ve ever seen. It’s gotta be rough to go out as Igor. Yes, condolences and all that, but no one has ever more aggressively lobbied for the deaths of so many others. Did he offer sympathy to all those he got killed?

Thank you to all those who reached out asking about my safety. I am home. But I cannot get the stories of the indignities Palestinian face out or my head. I am still processing it and wanted to share some of what I saw.