A Letter I Received Yesterday

Yesterday, I received the following letter in the mail:

Dear Ms. Esposito:

There is nothing that we – the Korean War Veterans, Rockland Chapter – can say or do to alleviate the pain and suffering that you have gone through over the sudden death of your Husband, Phillip in Iraq. As we said in Korea, he went to fight for a people he hardly knew and a land he never saw. God has a special place in Heaven for men like Captain Esposito who fought to defend the rights of others. All of us knew that when we went to Korea.

The Korean War Veterans, Rockland Chapter ask that you accept this contribution in your husband's honor for your needs.

They also serve who only stand and wait. (John Milton: On His Blindness).

Korean War Veterans
Rockland Chapter

Enclosed was a financial gift that expressed that the letter above was not mere words, but a deeply held sentiment made real by action.

In a time of hardship and despair, I have received many such statements and gifts. I am deeply thankful for them all. They cannot assuage all of my and my daughter's grief, but they nevertheless serve to remind us that we are not alone.

“He slaughtered our husbands and that’s it!”

Those are the words of my dear friend Barbara Allen whose husband was also killed alongside mine by this despicable man.

I am disgusted. This is a miscarriage of justice. My husband took an oath and died in fulfillment of it. The officers and non-commissioned officers who sat in judgment of Alberto Martinez betrayed their oath. Their task was to ensure justice and they failed utterly. I want them to pay for their failure.

They have said in a time of war you can take a personal grudge and turn it into premeditated murder and get away with it. He got away with murder. How can that be?

How do I explain to my daughter that her father would give his life to an institution that would turn his back on him so many times? How do I find the words? How do I come to grips with it myself?

I'm afraid for myself and my child. This man who murdered my husband leered at me in the courtroom in front of the jury. If he was innocent he would feel nothing but compassion for our families and would have shown it.

Barbara and I have been betrayed. The fact that it was by men and women who wore the same uniform as our husbands and claimed to share the same values makes this both sickening and wrong. This is the second worst day of my life.

Thank God for my family and friends whose untiring support gives me the strength to carry on (and some days, to keep living).