Sacrifice: The Final Chapter

The death of a soldier, the end of a life, is the beginning of a story.

Across Iraq and Afghanistan, on remote forward observation bases and combat outposts, American soldiers depended on each other. Thrown together, they breathed the same air, shared the same dreams of home, faced the same enemy. Many, too many, lived shortened lives.

In Wisconsin on an early autumn morning, Kermit Hugo hears a knock, peers through a window, see soldiers wearing dress blue uniforms standing at his front door . . .

Marine Sergeant Bob Kugler, serving in Iraq just a few miles from his brother Mike, collapses at the news-Mike has been killed . . .

On a summer day in California, Misty Herrera Fuoco watches the news, wonders if her sister, Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee, survived the suicide bomber's attack at Hamid Karzai airport . . .

Colleen Whipple from Oklahoma, and Helen Keiser-Pedersen from Connecticut. They watch soldiers walk toward them, their sons killed side by side in the same attack in the mountains of Afghanistan . . .

A helicopter shot down in Afghanistan, the 38 men, and a military combat canine aboard, are killed. Navy SEAL Commander Mark Oz delivers the news to Patricia Parry, Brian her son, is one of the 38 . . .

When a son or daughter, sister, brother, husband, wife, mother or father is in the military, the whole family is too. That's the way it works. Sacrifice shares the stories of people who gave us those soldiers.

Ron Farina is the author of three books, At the Altar of the Past, Out of the Shadows: Voices of American Women Soldiers, and Who Will Have My Back: Stories of Love and Care for Those Who Have Served and Sacrificed. Other works include "Keeping Promises" and "War Torn," personal essays about the human cost of war. In 2021 he was awarded the AWP Intro Award for fiction, and The Society of Professional Journalists, Connecticut Chapter first place award for general column magazine feature, for the essay "War Torn." He holds a BA in Creative Writing from Central Connecticut State University, and an MFA from Western Connecticut State University. He served in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two Golden Retrievers, Henry and Preacher.