From Sosuke Sagara

Just tuned in to see D-Ring's page.

I served with Capt. Terhune in Iraq, in 2007. It was a short deployment to a combat zone, but taxing nonetheless. I'm certain that his professional skill as a forward air controller contributed to one of the many airstrikes that made our area of operations a safer one to exist in.

When I heard that Capt. Terhune passed on, I was in our company office. I immediately brought his address up on the computer, and shot an email that read "Just heard; What happened?" to his account. I only then realized that he'd never respond. It was a fairly crushing realization, and I try not to think much of it.

Capt. Terhune was the most easily approachable officer I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. The fortune of dealing with, really. Even the most aggressive and intolerant of our ranks found him very likeable and knowledgable. Much of his time was spent in the well-deck, helping Marines understand the inner workings of close air support.

I don't know if you were aware of this, but his funeral was scheduled to be picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church, a hate group that pickets the funerals of soldiers and Marines. Up until the day prior, they planned to carry out this protest, and several of our Marines had conspired to cause them a good amount of harm if they carried it out. If not for a generous radio talk-show host, I shudder to think of the brig time and bad press we may have had to endure. A talk show host who's name I cannot recall offered the church an hour of free air-time in lieu of protesting that funeral, and they accepted. Thank God they accepted.

After this, I emailed the "church" about Capt. Terhune. They often get emails from viewers of their site, questioning their horrible ways. They respond with a slew of filth and angry insults, in general. I told them that I couldn't understand how they could consider picketing the funeral of Capt. Terhune, as he was one of the best men I could think of. Everyone around him knew of his faith, and I'm not sure even one of us can remember hearing the man curse.

I watched another officer play a joke on Capt. Terhune one day. He snuck up behind him in the office and threw a sleeper hold on him, and for some reason, the choke must've been too hard or something; Capt. Terhune passed out. We thought he was playing, and it took him a good minute to come to. When he did, he told us it felt like he'd slept all night. He was nothing but smiles and laughs about it. Even took the lower ranking guys, myself included, aside to ensure we knew the officer was joking and that nothing crazy needed to happen.

I don't know what I hoped to accomplish by writing. I hope you're all well. Good luck in all that you do.