At today’s pro-Bush/pro-Iraq rally in Crawford, parents of fallen soldiers took the stage to counter the anti-Bush/anti-war rhetoric of Cindy Sheehan and her supporters. The reported 3,000 who turned out for the support rally withstood the 100-degree Texas heat to hear moving tales from parents like this one:

“We have the responsibility to support our troops and to remember how it began on September, 11th. Our leaders made a pledge to demolish terrorism on a global scale. We were told it wouldn’t be easy and we were told it could take years. And what did we do? We clapped our hands, we shouted hurray, and waved our flags and said, ‘Go get them, we’re with you.’ And now four years later as our nation looks to Crawford, Texas, we stand divided because we’re beginning to feel it in our pocketbooks. The price at the gasoline pumps has gone up, making our budgets stretch further and further. And some of our soldiers have died.”

Next to take the stage was M.J. Kesterson, whose son Erik Kesterson was killed in Iraq on November 15th, 2003. Kesterson had already served in the Marines for eight years before signing up to become a Blackhawk pilot with the Army after September 11th. Kesterson told the crowd:

“My husband and I couldn’t be prouder yesterday, today and tomorrow to be Americans. I want you all to understand, I am not speaking out – I, and my husband are speaking up. … When September 11th happened I changed my life completely as all of us Americans have who are fighting to get the word out. Our son was Warrant Officer part of 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Our son, before he became a Blackhawk pilot with the 101st was a U.S. Marine. Our son was actually serving in Pendleton, California. He was on a training exercise. The Huey he was a crew chief on crashed. Eric had only four months left after an eight-year career in the Marine Corps. He was going to come home and try civilian life. That helicopter changed his life as well. When he went down, he was able to get off but the seven other Marines wouldn’t be able to do that. They were stuck, the helicopter was burning. Eric went back and rescued all seven and was honored with the Marine Corps Medal of Heroism.”

“He was quick to tell us that that’s the job of a comrade serving in uniform. We were very proud, we had him for 10 months then 9/11 happened. My husband and I knew even before our son that knock on the door had our son coming to tell us that he was going back to go in was just days away. When he did come to tell us he was going back, he said, ‘Please understand, I want to fly the Blackhawk. I can’t do it with the Corps, but I can do it with the Army. He became a Warrant Officer. He served our country proudly. He was shot down in Mosul, November, 15th, 2003 bring a striker brigade to an area that was under assault. We will forever be proud of our son. Neither of us can wear that uniform, but we will the uniform of an American. We are going to forever remind people that our freedom today did come at a high price, but freedom is worth all the sacrifices each one of us must make. It is a tough thing to have that knock at the front door, but our son chose not to serve once, but to serve two times.”