The moment -- Goodbye

A man says goodbye to a loved one... a Drama Newsletter "Show The Moment" challenge piece

         Jim Carbajal sat staring at the flag-draped coffin. Seeing the medals and awards resting on top of the Stars and Stripes, glinting in the mid-afternoon sun. Knowing the military service they represented – Afghanistan, Iraq, NATO and Stateside duty stations, all served with honor and distinction. Knowing, like many of the people sitting or standing around this grave, those pretty ribbons and shiny medals represented only hints of the person inside.

         As tears clouded his view of the casket, Jim saw clear pictures from his past. His 1983 college graduation and commissioning as an Army officer. The nurse he met in 1985 in the Ft. Rucker, AL, ER, after a helicopter accident. Marrying that nurse, Marie Ortega, in 1987, and the day their twin sons arrived in 1989. How she helped him recover from the 2002 helicopter crash in Iraq that took his lower legs and ended his military career. How their sons, Marshall and James, Jr., helped both around the house and with his therapy, even coming up with ways to make it fun. How both sons had followed him into the armed forces, and his wife had resumed her military career in 2004 (with his blessing) after a 12-year absence.

         Marshall Carbajal stood next to him, a newly minted Air Force officer sharing the day of grieving with his retired Army colonel father. He was the only one not shocked when his father, without asking for help, struggled to stand on artificial legs he had never gotten comfortable with. The shock turned to tears as James Carbajal, Sr., held up a picture in his left hand of James, Jr., saluting in an Army Class A uniform, so it faced the casket. As rifles fired and taps played on the bugle, uniformed husband and sons (one departed) all saluted Marie Ortega Carbajal, Major, U. S. Army Nurse Corps, killed the week before when the Air Force medical evacuation flight she was assisting on crashed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.



Word Count: 329