Ben & Julia Reid, Reunited Wednesday, Sept. 15

Our son Ben Reid’s Marine unit, 2nd Battalion, 1st Division, arrived back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., near San Diego on Wednesday evening, Sept. 15. As luck would have it, his wife Julia, a Naval officer attached to the USS John P. Murtha, an amphibious transport carrier, happened to have just come back to port early into San Diego from a long deployment in the South Pacific the Saturday before. Julia sent us the above photo taken after the Marines disembarked their transport planes. We hope they may be able to take leave together soon and perhaps have time to come to Oklahoma.

Speaking of Oklahoma.

Did you see where former University of Oklahoma and current Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield had a pair of cleats specially made (see below) to honor Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak? Soviak, from Ohio, was attached to Ben’s Marine company, and was one of the nine in his company tragically killed by the suicide bomber at the gates of the Kabul Airport. As I understand it, they are to be gifted to Soviak’s parents.

Julia sent us the following text Monday morning:

“I remember Ben telling me all about Doc Soviak on the drive when I dropped him off when his company went on deployment to the Middle East back in April. It seems like such a long time ago now.

Ben really liked him, and on the drive there, he was telling me stories about what a happy guy he was, and was telling me funny stories about him.

So his was one of the first names I recognized when the list of those who had fallen came out.

Ben has been very open about all those killed and wounded since he came back, and talks about it all very matter of fact, but I know how much he knows and cares about those guys, so my heart hurts for him just thinking about it.”

It’s A Small World

Through all the pain and heartache of this horrible episode, we are reminded of how easy it is to connect the dots in ways we never would have thought about, which brings us together with pride and hope as we come to terms with the death and injury of these outstanding young men and women who experienced this horrific, singular incident.

From what I can piece together, as I haven’t had time to discuss the incident with Ben - and I probably will not bring it up when we finally get to see him in person - basically a full platoon of fine young Marines was decimated by that blast. The survivors must also come to terms with it mentally, even if they were not physically injured by the blast.

This is the last piece I will write about the incident. I find it both heartwarming and so very sad to see the outpouring of affection that comes forth from the very large percentage of our nation that still honors our young patriots.