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| Ray
Joseph Hutchinson: He walked these halls and died in Iraq for us |
Posted:
12.22.03 | |
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June Liu, a senior at Clear Creek HiLife at Clear Creek High
School, shares how the war in Iraq suddenly came home with the
death of a soldier who graduated from her high school.
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About midway through a CNN article, it said, "On Sunday, another 101st
Airborne Division soldier died in northwestern Mosul when a roadside bomb struck
a convoy." It sounded just like any of the other numerous reports about a
solder's death in Iraq, but this one was about a 2001 Creek graduate and former
member of the HiLife staff, Ray Joseph Hutchinson.
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news came as a shock for me; it's not everyday that you hear that someone from
your school died fighting for your country. I never knew Ray personally, but his
name came up often in the HiLife's newsroom. I remember typing up his address
in the military for our last issue so that students could send him letters, and
I remember how Mrs. Jameson, our newspaper advisor, smiled whenever she talked
about him. I was proud of the fact that someone I was connected with in
such a way was serving for my country. | |
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| Anonymous
soldiers dying far away | |
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What struck me was the anonymity in the CNN article. When I read it, I felt
that it had a "Grave of the Unknown Soldier" ring to it. Everyday
I hear about the deaths of soldiers in Iraq, but they seemed, like in this article,
wholly unconnected to me, unreal because they are given only fractions of sentences
and have no names. While there was probably not much more a news article
could have said about him with the little information that they had, it is a personal
struggle to comprehend Ray's death that makes the sentence in the article stand
out. Ray went to the same school that I'm in. He spent time in the same newsroom
that I'm in, and he probably typed on the same keyboard that I am tying on. He
is not a nameless soldier; he is a student who will live on in our memories. | |
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family's grief | |
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Ray's name was not released to the media until a sergeant from the Army had
a chance to personally tell his family the news. Since his graduation, his parents
had moved to Phoenix, Arizona, but were in Houston because his grandmother was
in Methodist Hospital in critical condition and in need of emergency heart surgery.
Ray was scheduled to come back to see her, but his squad leader was already in
the States on emergency leave, and Ray was the only one he trusted to lead the
squad in his place. Ray was killed on his last scheduled mission of his nine-month
service in Iraq before he was due home. The group of people from the Army
did not have a current address of Ray's parents, but they tracked down his mother
to the hospital. Floor by floor, they searched the hospital until they found Ray's
mother. Ray's older brother, Lee, received a call from his father, telling him
to come to the hospital immediately. Lee was expecting news about his grandmother-something
that he was prepared for. But instead his father told him that Ray had passed
away. | |
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| Just
a soldier | |
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Since the release of Ray's name, our newsroom has been flooded with phone calls
and e-mails from students who knew Ray. Mrs. Jameson tells us about how Ray always
had a smile on his face and how he was always willing to help others out. She
says that in the years she knew him, she's never heard anyone say one bad word
about him. "I've had eighteen- and nineteen-year-old boys calling
me all day long, crying," she said. "These people really care about
each other." Sitting here while Mrs. Jameson is on the phone with
one of the past editors-in-chief of the newspaper, I feel like I am on the sidelines,
watching a great hero being celebrated. But Ray would not have wanted to
be remembered as a hero, Lee told me. "He would have wanted to be remembered
as a member of the infantry who served his country." | |
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| A
brother, son and friend lives on | |
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Lee's favorite memory of Ray is embodied in two pictures taken about thirteen
years ago. The family was vacationing at the Grand Canyon, and the boys' parents
had left the hotel room to go to the store. There were two twin beds in the room,
and each boy took a picture of the other jumping from one bed to the other. Lee
says that he likes the picture because, "It captures in a second everything
that Ray Joseph was-a smiling, happy guy." Four years ago, Ray took
a picture of a portion of the Moving Vietnam Wall when it was in League City.
The reflection of a soldier can be seen, black against the white names of the
soldiers who died in combat. You get the sense that the soldier is not in the
picture, but that he is standing where you are, facing it. This amazing photo
spectacularly captures the how Ray will live on in this newsroom, and in the minds
of so many people. He will always be in our presence, and he will always be remembered
as a "Ray" of sunshine.
--
June Liu's essay was originally published in the Clear
Creek HiLife at Clear Creek High School in League City, TX
where she is the editor-in-chief.
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American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
