Brian Jones: “Approximately 5 weeks ago, we tragically lost four soldiers in Niger: Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, Sergeant La David…”

“Approximately 5 weeks ago, we tragically lost four soldiers in Niger: Staff Sergeant Bryan Black, Sergeant La David Johnson, Staff Sergeant Dustin Wright, and Staff Sergeant Jeremy Johnson. As recently as this past week, we lost a soldier in Afghanistan, Sergeant First Class Stephen B. Cribben. To honor those I have just named, and their families, I would like to close by reading a September 26, 2010, editorial by Bob Schieffer, the host of ``Face the Nation.'' The title of his editorial was: ``The Real Cost of War.'' ``I was in an airport lounge the other day when I saw a woman across the way. Why I kept staring, I don't know. Maybe it was just that she seemed so sad. And then I understood. And I looked away, hoping she had not seen me stare. ``Because in her lap was an American flag, neatly folded into a triangle and placed in a clear plastic case--a flag folded the way it always is when it is given to a soldier's family as the soldier's coffin is lowered into the grave. ``I figured her to be a soldier's mother, and I couldn't help but wonder what memories that flag evoked as she held it there.…”