Alaska News

Our view: Still at war

NPR played an interview with a Marine's wife at Camp Pendleton on Tuesday. She remarked that Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of Navy SEALS was an accomplishment, but that with her husband due to be deployed to war again soon, celebration is muted.

It's not the same as VE or VJ days in World War II.

American troops and their families continue to sacrifice and risk.

Ongoing war tempers the satisfaction Americans feel at the reckoning for bin Laden. Just last month, Alaska counted two more dead among Alaskans and Alaska-based troops.

Maj. David L. Brodeur, 34, executive officer for the 11th Air Force, fighter pilot and father of two, died with eight other Americans in a shooting at Kabul airport by an Afghan air force pilot.

Capt. Charles E. Ridgley, 40, of the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 3rd Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, was killed with four other Americans when an Afghan soldier, later identified as a Taliban sleeper agent, set off grenades at a forward operating base.

Both men were based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

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Their deaths brought to 151 the number of Alaskans or Alaska-based troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All told, more than 6,000 American men and women have been killed and about 50,000 wounded in the wars.

The 1st Stryker Brigade out of Fort Wainwright continues its deployment to Afghanistan, and smaller Alaska units continue to send troops there.

The real celebration will begin when they're all home.

BOTTOM LINE: We'll celebrate for keeps when the war is over.

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