Perspective: A haunting last memory of a friend

Joey (Robert J.) Montgomery

U.S. Army Spc. Gerald Lee Meeks says all he wanted in Iraq was to "keep everybody alive, all my buddies."

That hope was shattered last month when a roadside bomb blew up one of his best friends, and Meeks had to carry his slain buddy more than a mile back to base.

"I didn't want to believe it until I actually had to carry his body bag, which was pretty bad," he says, making a fist with his left hand and smashing it against a wall. "We had to carry him two clicks [kilometers] all the way back here."

There's a long silence as Meeks looks at two comrades. Finally, after a pause that seems like hours, he slowly says, "Those images will always be in your head. I'm sure many people over here got them, but I mean ... it just sucks. ... He has three kids and a wife."

He pauses again, correcting himself: "A widow."

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