The United States lost six more soldiers in Afghanistan when a Taliban terrorist rammed a foot patrol with an explosive-laden motorbike. One of those killed was already familiar to many lawyers. Air Force Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen was one of the first openly gay service members to come forward after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in 2011. She was among a true “band of brothers” who represented the very best of this country in its diversity and patriotism. Vorderbruggen shows how gay and lesbian personnel continue to step forward to put themselves in peril in defense of their fellow citizens — even those who have long fought their effort to achieve equal rights.
Among her comrades killed in the attack was also Air National Guardsman Joseph Lemm, 45, a 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department. During his deployment, an Italian market in the Bronx would send him cookies and candies to remind him of home.
Also killed was Staff Sergeant Louis Bonacasa, 31, of Coram, New York. Bonacasa was a careerist and was on his fourth tour abroad. He left a wife and 5 year old daughter.
Also killed was Chester McBride, assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Detachment 405, at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. McBride was a star football player at his high school in Georgia and joined the Air Force after graduating from Savannah State University.
Staff Sergeant Peter Taub, 30, of Philadelphia, was married with a 3-year-old son, and was expecting a second child to be born next summer. He was assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Detachment 816, at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
Staff Sgt. Michael A. Cinco, 28, of Mercedes, Texas, assigned to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, 11th Field Investigations Squadron, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Texas.
Major Vorderbruggen had served as a special agent with the Office of Special Investigations in various bases. Vorderbruggen and her civilian wife, Heather Lamb, were married in June of 2012, and were raising a son who is not yet five.
The unit was a snapshot of the United States and shows the strength that is found in our diversity and equality. Each of these brave people will be missed not only by their grieving families but the nation as a whole.
Paul – I hear ya. Bill does a good job smacking him down.
Very sad. I hope the families will find peace. If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re reading in English, thank a soldier. En Los Estados Unidos, anyway…
“The unit was a snapshot of the United States and shows the strength that is found in our diversity and equality.”
That statement is contradictory. We definitely are not all equal. Especially amongst males and females. We should not exacerbate those differences, we should EMBRACE them. When we work together in the ways that we are good at, we become a cohesive unit, a well regulated machine.
Doglover, I don’t agree with this, “Also, those who are truly pro-life are opposed to military engagement.”
Why can’t Han Shoot First? He was clearly in imminent danger of his life.
Steg – I saw Star Wars on a 70mm screen and Han clearly shot first!!! And it was important to the plot and his character. George Lucas is a wimp and should be banned from film making.
Folks, the only reason JT wrote this article is that his friend, the lesbian, was killed. Now, since finally, women will be in all combat roles, we will see more of these deaths.
The United States military is the most honorable of all our institutions. Until human nature evolves from what it has been since the beginning of time, every nation will need a force to defend its national security. If we don’t have volunteers then we will need the draft. Fortunately we still have young men and women that believe in something other than themselves. God bless them. Don’t blame the military for where they are ordered to go, blame the politicians that push a foreign policy that sends them there.
The man should have joined a nudist colony then he could have looked legally for free. Takes all kinds I suppose. Surprised at the stiff sentence. Usually, the Brits are quite lenient on sex stuff. Isn’t the age of consent 14?
Maybe, in 10 years voyeurism will be a constitutional right. I’m sure its there in the 14th amendment somewhere. We just haven’t looked hard enough.
When I hear about this version of people here on planet Earth I often here the word “bent”. Where does that derive from?
What Joseph Jones said.
Also, those who are truly pro-life are opposed to military engagement.
Thank an ACLU attorney for protecting your freedoms.
I have a good friend who is a retired homicide detective. When he was getting ready to leave the police force he was recruited by a private company that was providing police detectives to go to Afghanistan and help set up some sort of police/court system. The pay was $250k, TAX FREE, for a year. I discussed w/ this guy the fact that I was ready to cut back my work and could turn it over to him. He made the wise choice of not going to Afghanistan and we worked together on a case last week. God bless these good people. I pray for their families.
Conscription and the Vietnam War were, together, one of America’s most shameful moments. The whole experience is even too disgusting to be the subject of a movie.
However, in most societies there are those who seek this sort of experience, adventure, etc. They may or may not but probably do have sincere patriotic motives. For them to rise to the task of ridding the world of extremists places them a cut above the rest. For most of the idiot politicians who engineer these events, a cut above translates into an immeasurable cut above.
These are American as well as world heroes and heroines.
Such a sad and pointless loss of life
The science geek
http://www.thesviencegeek.org
The time will come when historians will list the end of conscription in our USA as a major defining event of the 20th century along with Hiroshima and the deciphering of the structure of DNA.
Does Lindsey Graham Kraker have any kids in the wars? John McCain? Ted Cruz? Donald Trump? Jack Mehoff?
I’ll never forget one of first causalities of the Iraq war. A U.S. Army solider was handing out food to Iraqi children, and then he was shot in the head and died.
Joseph Jones, if you truly think the wars are for the benefit of the rich at the expense of the rest of us, then those people you are shitting on before their bodies are even cold are victims.
Thank you for your service and RIP all.
Hey J. J. did yous ever wore da “boots”? If ya got da stripes, speak up!
Our daughter’s momma wore dem boots so did her daddy and two grandpas.
Disparage the ones who signed on and deployed at your peril. You and countless others here and abroad have the freedoms you use to degrade others because of others standing their posts.
Sucks being cannon fodder, war is hell… that’s why we’ll never see “senator’s son” recruited, oh how fortunate.
Joseph Jones stated “Anyone who thinks the Generals or Obama or Clinton care one whit about sending these Americans to die is simply wrong. They don’t care at all.” No, they don’t care. They are immune to what happens to to the working class and poor Americans who make up the majority of recruits in our military.
I view military members as persons who destroy America, not those who defend it.
If people would stop volunteering, our foreign military excursions would end immediately. The problem is that since they ended the draft, they destroyed the middle class and killing our fake enemies is one of the few jobs left w/good pay, benefits, and of course you get people like Turley giving you the “Attaboy!”
Hey Turley, why don’t you stop glorifying these people and tell them not to join instead? If your loved one considers joining, demand they not join. If your loved one is in now, tell them to find religion, claim they can no longer kill anyone, and demand early release.
Wars are to enrich bankers and the elite, nothing else. Don’t take my word for it, believe Smedley Butler, at the time of his death the most decorated US Marine in history. Read his Wiki page and then wake up and get your loved one out before they kill anyone else, or die trying.
Read OBL’s 1996 Declaration of War vs. the West. Islam’s war on the west is directly because of:
1. US military occupying Mecca and the ME in general
2. US marriage to Israel
3. US blind support of the most evil and blood thirsty dictators in the world, who just happen to rule roughshod over Muslims in the ME (Saudi Arabia beheaded over 200 this year, and regularly cuts off the hands, and stones people to death like a recent woman for adultery while the male got only 100 lashes)
“Live by the sword, die by the sword.”
Anyone who thinks the Generals or Obama or Clinton care one whit about sending these Americans to die is simply wrong. They don’t care at all.