Many in community feel loss and would like to help

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Cpl. Matthew P. Wallace, 22, died Friday from injuries he suffered following a roadside explosion in Baghdad.

He was the son of Keith and Mary Wallace of Lexington Park, and brother to sisters Jessica, Abigail and Micah, who were at his side when he died at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He was flown to Germany after suffering severe burns when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle on July 16.

If there is anything this community can do to relieve the family’s anguish and honor their son, there are many people here willing to do it.

Matthew Wallace is the second young man from St. Mary’s County to die since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. As of this writing 2,567 servicemen and women have died in the war.

So there has been similar sorrow in many communities in this nation of 300 million people. But with two fallen soldiers, this county of 90,000 has seen more than its share of suffering. For generations now St. Mary’s County has carried more than its statistical share of the sacrifices and virtues that come with serving in the nation’s armed services.

But statistics are not the point.

Matt Wallace was an ordinary person, like just about all of us. At 22 he was finding his way in the world, like just about all of us. He came from a loving family, and joined the military, as so many of St. Mary’s County’s young people do, to serve his nation and ‘‘do something that made a difference in the environment that we’re living in now,” his father said last week. It was a simple and noble pursuit, untainted by the cynicism and politics that swirl around war.

Raymond Faulstich Jr. died in Iraq in similar fashion on Aug. 5, 2004. He was 24, and another young man raised in St. Mary’s who chose to join the military as he began to take on adult responsibilities.

These are the people engaged in the fighting in Iraq, who shoulder these burdens while the great majority of the citizens of this country stay home, largely untouched by war. However in St. Mary’s there are many men and women who have served tours in Iraq since 2003, and many families who have worried about them. There are no statistics to prove it, but it is a safe bet that St. Mary’s has contributed more than its share of people who have in turn contributed more than their share of work with the aim of helping a difficult mission succeed.

For the rest of us, now is the time to demonstrate the support we so often profess for those engaged in this struggle. Now is the time to invite Matt Wallace’s family to take comfort from a community that feels a genuine loss and would like to help however it can.