Andrew Olmsted was a U.S. Army major serving in Iraq.
There are lots of servicepeople who blog from duty zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there are lots of servicepeople who are aware and accepting of the fact that they could die in the line of duty at any time. Major Olmsted had the presence of mind to combine those two realities.
He’s gone, but his words aren’t. A must read.
UPDATE: The major was also pretty skilled at predicting the future, or at least the circumstances of his death.
That is pretty deep. I certainly admire the man for his thoughtfulness and restraint. I am assuming it would be easy to get carried away when writing something that you dont have to “live with”.
I wonder if he would write the same post if he was in a situation where he was alive but absolutely knew he was going to die shortly – trapped at the bottom of a pile of rubble or something like that.