Across the Street

Images courtesy: Mary Grindey

Staff Sgt. Jesse Grindey and his wife were walking down a Hazel Green, Wis., street when they noticed a beautiful house for sale.

"We were walking to the cemetery to visit his grandfather, and I told him 'I like this house,' and he said 'I like it too,'" Mary Grindey told The Unknown Soldiers. "But I said 'who would buy that house ... who would want to live by the cemetery?'"

Hazel Green, located near the Illinois border, is known as Wisconsin's "point of beginning," which is particularly appropriate for Mary. A native of the Philippines, she met her future husband seven years ago in South Korea. They were married in 2008, just before Staff Sgt. Grindey was transferred to Japan. In 2011, Jesse and Mary moved to the United States.

"When we found out we were coming here to the States, he said he would be deployed (to Afghanistan) no matter what," Mary said. "I told him 'don't volunteer.'"

Jesse had been volunteering his entire life. Not only had the Wisconsin native served in Iraq, but he was also a volunteer firefighter and EMT with the Hazel Green Fire Department and Rescue Squad.

"If there was a fire, he'd jump into a fire truck and then jump into the fire," Mary said.

But things were different now, as the Army couple was trying to settle down while raising two young children that Jesse adored. Still, the soldier remained steadfast in his commitment to serve.

"The night before he left, I told him 'can't you get out of the Army?'" Mary said. "He said 'no, this is my job.'"

Jesse deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Dec. 30, 2011, with the 287th Military Police Company, based out of Fort Riley, Kan. With her husband thousands of miles away, Mary took on the responsibility of caring for two young children in an unfamiliar town and country.

"I talked to him two hours every day for the first month," the soldier's wife said. "He kept saying that he was doing good ... I really felt more comfortable, too."

Then, as Mary and the kids visited Jesse's grandmother on the morning of March 12, 2012, something didn't feel right.

"I had that really, really weird feeling in the morning," Mary said. "I was so sad ... I wanted to cry."

A few hours later, Jesse's tearful sister told Mary she needed to go home.

"I saw the Chaplain and (Army Sergeant First Class) waiting for me, and I could tell it wasn't good news," Mary said.

Image courtesy: U.S. Air Force/Steve Kotecki

Jesse, 30, had succumbed to a medical problem of which no one, including Mary, was aware.

"I was shocked, because I had never seen him in pain," she said. "It just shocked everyone because he was such a healthy guy."

Support for Mary and the couple's children poured in from all over the world.

"I can't ask for a better community than Hazel Green," Mary said. "Jesse's family gave me a lot of support, as well as friends from Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Japan, Korea and the community here ... I can't even say enough words."

The last time Mary spoke to her husband was three days before he died. It was also her mother's birthday, and Jesse wanted to know if she was enjoying her new house in the Philippines, which the soldier helped pay for with a portion of his salary.

"The last words (he said to) me were 'hey honey, tell your mom happy birthday for me,'" Mary said.

When Mary visited Jesse's grave in the same cemetery where his grandfather is buried, she noticed a "for sale" sign in the window of the house the couple once admired. She decided to buy it.

"We get a lot of snow in the winter, but in summertime, the fall, or the spring, my kids drive their little smart cars and go visit," Mary said. "I can even hear them yelling ... 'Daddy, we're here.'"

As Mary Grindey and her children mark a new point of beginning, they are comforted to know that Staff Sgt. Jesse Grindey, who spent many years putting out fires at home and abroad, is always right across the street.

COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM

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The Unexpected

Images courtesy: Laura Monk

When Spc. Austin Monk deployed to Iraq in August 2009, the soldier's wife expected the worst.

"When your loved one deploys to Iraq, you expect them to come home injured ... (physically or emotionally) wounded, or you expect them to come back dead," Laura Monk told "The Unknown Soldiers."

She never thought her 20-year-old husband's combat deployment would end with a shocking diagnosis of leukemia.

"You never expect them to come back with cancer," she said.

Laura met Austin on an early morning bus ride from her native Philadelphia to New York City in December 2007. After initially being too nervous to talk to the "cute soldier" from Texas as the bus made the short trip up Interstate 95, they struck up a conversation.

"Everything else that wound up happening in our lives showed we were meant to meet," Laura said.

Austin and Laura got married in March 2009, shortly after the soldier returned from Korea.

"It was awesome because we got to build our relationship through conversations, learn about each other over the phone and have an emotional connection," Laura said. "We just fell in love."

Less than five months after their wedding, Spc. Monk deployed to Iraq's Al Anbar Province with an 82nd Airborne Division personal security detachment.

"This is what I signed up to do," Austin said to his wife. Austin first complained about a terrible headache during one of the couple's Skype conversations. Then, on Halloween 2009, Austin wrote Laura a MySpace message saying he had a 104-degree fever.

"Don't worry about me," Austin added.

A few weeks later, fellow soldiers found Austin lying on the floor of his barracks. The ordeal that followed, which took the soldier from hospitals in Iraq to Germany, left Laura feeling helpless as she agonized over her husband's condition from thousands of miles away.

"They initially thought he had mono or tuberculosis and that the headache could have been from his wisdom teeth," Austin's wife said.

When Laura was informed her husband was suffering from leukemia, all she wanted was to be by his side.

"I'll be there soon," she said.

After the Army flew Laura to Germany, she would rarely be separated from Austin again, except for one special week.

"He told me to go to Paris," Laura said. "Even though he was stuck in the hospital, he wanted to make it enjoyable for me."

Austin and Laura eventually ended up at a top cancer hospital in Houston. With Austin's cancer in remission after a May 2011 bone marrow transplant, the Monks were preparing to head home to North Carolina, where the soldier was stationed, with a renewed sense of optimism.

"We thought we were good," Laura said. "It was normalcy ... normalcy for us."

Austin collapsed just hours before the couple's flight. A few hours later, the soldier learned his cancer had returned.

"That was the last time he was ever outside a hospital," Laura said.

The Monks eventually returned to North Carolina, where Austin, 22, would spent his last days in a hospice facility. In the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2011, Laura, who met the love of her life by chance on a bus, told her husband it was time for his next trip.

"It's okay for you to go," she whispered in Austin's ear. "I love you."

Even after three years of pain, Laura feels deeply inspired by the courage displayed by her husband, both as an American soldier and young cancer patient.

"I want him to be remembered as the smiling Austin, the guy who loved the Dallas Cowboys, the guy that no matter what the consequences, signed up and joined the Army," she said.

Spc. Austin Monk will always be with his wife. And due to the wonders of medical technology, Laura still hopes to bear his children.

"He would have been a great dad," she said. "But he'll be looking down on us."

Laura Monk expected the worst when her husband went to Iraq. But even after the unimaginable ordeal that followed, her outlook has changed for the better.

"I have to make the best of it because it's all I've got," she said.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

The Chosen Few

Image courtesy: Susan Coti

When Lance Cpl. Niall Coti-Sears decided to join the United States Marine Corps, he was emulating a hero.

"He wanted to follow in his grandfather's footsteps," Lance Cpl. Coti-Sears' mother, Susan Coti, told The Unknown Soldiers.

Niall's grandfather, Col. William Coti (Ret.), served in the Marines for more than 30 years. Before two tours in Vietnam, he fought in the bloody 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir — one of the Korean War's defining struggles. The heroes who clashed with Communist Chinese forces for 17 days in freezing conditions are known as "The Chosin Few."

Niall, who was home-schooled by his grandparents for two years, spent many hours learning in their basement, which his parents said resembles a Marine Corps museum. While Col. Coti never told his grandson to join the military, young Niall would often put on old uniforms and pretend he was in combat.

"One time I said, 'Niall, the gun jammed and the enemy is getting close, what are you going to do?'" Col. Coti recalled. "He picked up a grenade and threw it."

One day, Niall decided to become a Marine.

"Poppy, I want to be like you," he said.

When the teenager told his parents, both feared for his safety.

"My initial reaction was that I was completely against it," Niall's father, Paul Sears, said. "Not because of the Marines Corps or the military, but because of the way the world is today."

But when the aspiring Arlington, Va., warrior paid a visit to his father in Baltimore, Paul could see the focus in his son's eyes.

"I was 100 percent behind him," the Marine's father, who now lives in Arizona, said.

Image courtesy: Paul Sears

Still, both parents hoped Niall could avoid Afghanistan or Iraq's front lines.

"We begged him not to choose infantry," Niall's mother said. "We said, you could do anything; why would you want to go to Afghanistan as an infantryman?"

But that's exactly the path Niall, who grew up hearing his grandfather's war stories, chose.

"He was just ... a really fearless guy," Susan said.

"I believe that he needed to be part of something that was a lot larger than he was," Paul said.

Before leaving for Afghanistan, Niall spoke to 4th graders at the Washington, D.C., school where his mom teaches.

"One of the boys asked him if he was afraid," Susan said. "He said no ... he really believed it was something he needed to do."

Niall deployed to southern Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment in March. He was in frequent communication with his family until around Father's Day, when he went behind Taliban lines for a dangerous mission.

"That's when I got worried," his father said. "And when his birthday came, I got really worried."

On June 21 — Niall's 23rd birthday — his mother got a box of flowers.

"Just because you're always here for me, mom," Niall's card read.

Two days later, Niall was killed in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. His mom, dad, and grandfather said he stepped on an enemy improvised explosive device.

Commanders informed the Marine's parents that not long before his death, Niall was in a ferocious firefight. Just like the pretend battle in his grandpa's basement, Niall picked up grenades and fearlessly hurled them toward the enemy.

"Everyone who knew Niall knew his greatness," Niall's platoon commander, 2nd Lt. Kenneth Conover, wrote to the family.

Col. Coti is immensely proud of his grandson. But pride doesn't erase the pain he and other members of Niall's family are experiencing.

Image courtesy: U.S. Air Force/Adrian Rowan

"It's been a complete blur," Niall's dad said six weeks after his son was killed. "To me, it just happened yesterday."

"It's hard to believe he's gone," the Marine's mother said.

Niall was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, where he is surrounded by heroes of the battles in which his grandfather once fought.

"He was always looking out for other people's welfare," Col. Coti said.

While delivering Niall's eulogy, Paul read a Buddhist quotation that inspired his son.

"The greatest achievement is selflessness," it begins.

Like Col. William Coti in Korea and Vietnam, Lance Cpl. Niall Coti-Sears selflessly stepped forward to serve in Afghanistan. In choosing to his risk his life for others, a proud grandson didn't just emulate a hero. He became one.

COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM

Image courtesy: Cpl. Mark Garcia

'Be ready'

Image courtesy: Petty Officer 1st Class Chad McNeeley

There are approximately 28,000 American troops stationed in South Korea. Today, our brave men and women are on a heightened state of alert after evidence proved that North Korea sunk a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors.

"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

North Korea's communist dictator, Kim Jong-il, is believed to have personally ordered the torpedo attack. His government routinely issues insane statements threatening military strikes against any country that retaliates against its provocative actions, making the situation even more unpredictable.

Even with intense combat in Afghanistan and dangerous times in Iraq, the U.S. military remains the world's greatest fighting force, and stands ready to defend freedom against its oppressors. While we all hope the crisis on the Korean peninsula can be solved without more Americans having to lay down their lives on foreign soil, it is clear the United States will never back down to evil dictators like Kim Jong-il.