The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Sgt. Edmund J. Jeffers, 23, of Daleville, Ala., died Sept. 19 in Taqqadum, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related accident. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

The circumstances surrounding the death are under investigation.

If the name sounds familiar, you've met him before, in this space and elsewhere.

Sergeant Eddie Jeffers, via The New Media Journal.

And to think, I volunteered for this...

And I am ignorant to the rest of the world...or so I thought.

But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn't fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.

I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that's what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.

You can read the rest here. H/t, Jim C.

A voice of hope now speaks at Fiddler's Green. Or, as AFSis said, "Hope Rides Eternal."

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.