Yes, it is all very depressing.

Chris: I see you self-describe as am amateur military historian. When my son was growing up we were in a Military History Book Club at B&N for a couple years that was quite rewarding. (He was maybe 13–14 or 12–13.) When we read Black Hawk Down as part of that group, a helicopter pilot who had been at that base came to our group. It was suddenly very real. He did NOT participate in the rescue that day because he had been assigned to fly the general up to Greece. (That also proved to be a boneheaded move on our part, alas.)

Best to you…