used to death in Iraq, and while we didn’t ignore it, we didn’t focus on it either…until we learned that OUR soldier had been in it. Now the death was at our doorstep. Many of us had never known anyone who died. For many of us, this was an unfortunate first.
We began to get to know Sgt Pfister through his letters. We grew to admire and feel proud of him more and more with every e-mail. His love of America, his patriotism, was always evident. The seriousness of his work was never forgotten. But Sgt Pfister knew how to share his fight with a bunch of middle school kids. He took a situation that had to be awful and he twisted it into a funny, full of irony, situation, without ever emphasizing on the truly bad parts of what he faced.
Now that we have had time to think and grieve about what happened, we can and should celebrate everything Travis accomplished, celebrate how “cool” he was, just like he always wanted us to. So, I’m going to focus on Travis’ humorous personality here today by sharing some of his stories that gave us quite a few laughs.
When he first started writing to us, Travis told us about being afraid that the teacher might think his letters were grammatically incorrect and he didn’t want our teachers to see that…a feeling we definitely understood. Travis was always relating things in Iraq to things we know well. In one of his early letters, he told us about his Thanksgiving menu, describing the food as “some form of prime rib for dinner”. He went on to say, “I think it was really camel meat, but I’ll never know. It’s sort of like the mystery meat in the school cafeteria, I guess. The food in the Marine Corp. is a lot like regular food, except without flavor.” In the same letter he described the weather as “sucky…it is a lot like, um, well nowhere really.” Travis could take a not-so-comfortable position, and get a kick out of it when times were tough, just one of his admirable traits.
When the winter holidays were approaching, Travis joked about his Christmas lunch, saying “I think they are serving dog meat vs. camel meat…WOOOOHOOOO!” That says a lot coming from a guy nicknamed “Lunchbox” by his wife Jessica, because he was always willing to eat anything that you put in front of him. Travis also told us about how much he missed all of the basic necessities that we take for granted every day, one example being an adequate restroom. He wrote to us, “I miss having a bathroom that isn’t 100 yards away.”
In his free time, Travis explained, “I go to the gym, okay, I lied. I do that when I am at work…don’t tell your parents what their tax dollars are paying for.”
Sgt Travis Pfister dedicated his life to serving our country, risked his life to follow through with his commitment, and lost his life trying to keep his promise. He may no longer be with us physically, but everything he taught us and showed us when he was here will stay with all of us forever. His lively, humorous spirit will live on here at Harding Middle School.
Travis showed us how to laugh in the face of adversity and cry at times with laughter instead of fear, and that in itself is more than we had have ever asked for. He changed our lives, and we will never forget him. ( Long Pause Here) May God bless Sergeant Travis Pfister, his friends and family, and may God bless the United States of America." |
