Source/Credit: The Northwestern
By Patricia Wolff | May 2, 2011
Pete Wallace, the father of Oshkosh soldier Andrew Wallace who was killed in Iraq nearly six years ago, looks heavenward every night still to talk to his son. He had a special message Sunday night: Osama bin Laden was dead.
He had a special message Sunday night: Osama bin Laden was dead.
“I chat with him every night. I don’t think he would have heard this in heaven because (Osama bin Laden) went straight to the other place.”
Wallace of Marshfield called the announcement of bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. forces in Pakistan “a little bit of closure for all the ones we’ve lost. It adds a little more justice and meaning to their deaths.”
“It’s good to see and hear. It’s a long time coming,” Wallace said.
Wallace was just 25 when he died from a roadside bomb as he helped escort a convoy of supply trucks in Iraq. He was part of the Wisconsin Army National Guard, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment.
He was working as a physical education teacher at Oshkosh North High School and Emmeline Cook Elementary when his unit was called up to join Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Phil Marshall, the principal at Emmeline Cook, thought of Wallace when he heard the news of bin Laden’s death on Sunday. He sent a memo to school staff first thing Monday reflecting on what he described as “the extraordinary events of the last 24 hours,” which caused him to think of the soldiers and patriots who have died in the nearly 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“Finally today a deeper purpose for their ultimate sacrifice has been realized,” Marshall wrote in his memo.
“It’s as though we’ve been hanging in limbo since 9-11. All these tragedies of losing soldiers and what is the purpose? It struck me today that now we realize that purpose, though we still miss Andrew and think about him,” Marshall said.
While some have exhibited jubilation at bin Laden’s death, Marshall was disturbed by the dancing and flag-waving in the streets that he witnessed in some television reports.
“It looks like a celebration in New York. I got a sick feeling with all that… Instead, we’ve been observing and reflecting,” Marshall said.
Oshkosh native Shawn Monroe, 32, had a different perspective. The National Guardsman who served as a squad commander calling artillery and air strikes in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 is now a peer counselor for veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at the Veterans Administration in Appleton. He understands the joy of those people celebrating bin Laden’s death in New York.
“Those people lived through it. That type of emotion is warranted. We got the guy who killed thousands. They will be happy. There’s nothing wrong with it,” Monroe said.
While in college Monroe majored in international studies and geography with an emphasis on global and national security. As such, he looks at bin Laden’s death through a different lens, he said.
The president’s news on Sunday night surprised him. He missed the actual announcement and didn’t believe his wife when she told him.
“I didn’t think we’d be able to get him. I had a hunch he’d pass away from disease.”
Monroe said. “When I realized it was true I knew it was also a big symbolic victory for us. It shows our resolve to go get him no matter how far we had to go.
Monroe said he hopes bin Laden’s death creates closure for the victims.
“It closes a chapter for them,” he said.
But will the death of Osama bin Laden create a safer world? Monroe is hopeful that “getting rid of Osama bin Laden “ will slow down terrorist operations, but he doesn’t expect the event to shut them down.
“It does show the world that we do whatever it takes to get justice, and it may be a deterrent in that way and may create stability. But with him out of the picture it won’t create a safer world because there are people below him willing to step up,” Monroe said.
Members of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community opened their doors in Oshkosh to the media and the public Monday to clarify the organizations’ opinion on bin Laden’s leadership and to distance themselves from him. They want the public to know they love peace.
“We are happy that Osama bin Laden was brought to justice. We are all against Osama bin Laden,” said Mustafa Ahmed, director of public affairs. “Unfortunately he was a Muslim. The terrorist that created al-Qaida and Taliban has hijacked our religion. “
Ahmed provided flyers that the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community distributes door-to-door in the communities in which branches are located throughout the United States.
Those flyers promote loyalty to one’s country and shun terrorism.
“The original point here to see what Islam is saying go back to the Holy Quran that says if you kill one man it is as if you kill all of mankind,” Ahmed said.
“What Osama bin Laden’s been doing is not Islam at all. It’s definitely not what Islam is, which is always against the ideology of jihad by sword. That is illegal,” he said.
Patricia Wolff: (920) 426-6689 or pwolff@thenorthwestern.com.
Read original post here: Father of fallen Oshkosh soldier, community reacts to death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden
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