The War

Today I was walking to the Bone Student Center and as I entered I noticed a wall full of drawings on these walls. The pictures were of American soldiers that had died in Iraq. All of these soldiers were also from Illinois. This really caught my attention. I stood there for a while in amazement. There had to be around 200 portraits. Looking at these portraits really made me think how close to home this war is. I even saw a couple of soldiers that were from my home town. This really made me sad. These men were pretty close in age to me. Most ranged from about 20-24. I just stood there in awe thinking about how these soldiers' lives were gone because of the war in Iraq. The sign said that the death toll of American soldiers as of recent was about 2200. This really kind of upset me. It hurts to know that people like me had their lives taken away from them at such an early age. It was a very sad thing to see. I can only imagine what it must be like for the families of these kids and how crushed they must have been. Usually I would have just walked by something like this but the portraits were so vivid with detail and really gave you an idea of who these people were. So I went around and read their stories. After looking at the portraits I couldn't stop thinking about it for a while. I was really upset with how many peoples lives were taken from them from Illinois alone. I thought about this off and on throughout the day and will always remember how big of heroes these men and women really were. I have so much respect for those in the armed forces. I feel lucky that we have people brave enough to risk their lives in order to keep our country safe.