Civilians Die For Their Country

by Jose Martinez
(San Diego, CA USA)

I proudly served in the United States Army for more than 8 years. However, when I went to serve in the Middle East, I was a civilian. Civilians die for their country, too. You just don't hear about it as much on the news. I would like to tell you about my friend James, one of many civilians who die for their country overseas.

In 1991 I was hired by General Dynamics to go to Saudi Arabia to work on the Army's Fox Chemical Vehicle. While waiting at the airport in El Paso, I noticed this guy wearing a white suit in our lounge to go to Dallas. In Dallas I noticed the same guy in the our lounge to go to Maryland. At the Baltmore Airport, this same guy was at our meeting point.

We became fast friends and spent many hours together playing spades. We played a lot of spades in Maryland, Germany and Saudi Arabia. When the war was over, I returned before James because I had a son who was born while I was in Germany training. My last conversation with James was over the radio and I told him I would see him back at the Hacienda in a few weeks. He said he would call me when he got home.

Well, in two weeks he had not called me so I called his house to check on him to see if he had returned yet. His wife answered and told me that James was dead. On his trip from KKMC to Riyad he was involved in a traffic accident and died instantly. It was a tragedy I will never forget.