Sgt. Jason Dean Hovator
I didn't feel well when I woke up yesterday morning. I'd had a rough night of not sleeping due to some shoulder pain. After laying on an ice pack for a while, I finally drifted off to sleep some time after 6. We were supposed to leave for our ride about 8:10. About 7:45, Sean woke me up to ask if I had changed my mind about going. I thought about it a minute, still aching a bit and so wanting more sleep. I told him to go ahead on the ride and I thought I would just stay home as I just didn't feel up to it but I didn't want to ruin the ride for him.
I laid my head back down as he went to take a shower. As I lay there I thought about the ride we had planned for the day. It was a Patriot Guard ride for Sgt. Jason Dean Hovater. This was the information we had received from our local Rolling Thunder chapter...
"Sgt. Hovator and his comrades were killed Sunday when about 200 militants armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a remote outpost in Wanat near the Pakistan border. While the attack was repelled, U.S. and Afghan troops later abandoned the outpost. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy. Hovater had been in Afghanistan for 16 months.
'He only had a week left before he was leaving (Afghanistan),” his sister, Jessica Davis of Norris, told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “We were all excited to see him and be with him and hold him.'
She said her parents, Gerald and Kathy Hovater of Lake City, learned of her brother’s death when Army officers knocked on their door Monday morning.
Hovater and his wife, Jenna Hovater, were married six weeks before he deployed. He would have turned 25 on Aug. 10."
I laid there in bed and realized how selfish it was for me to turn this family away for the sake of a couple hours of sleep. I got up and went to join Sean in the shower.
The ride was a sombering experience, but I'm glad that I went. As I stood there holding our American flag while they unloaded this family's loved one from the plane, I thought of my son of the same age as this young man. I thought of my brother who recently got back from Kosovo. I thought of how I woke up this morning next to the man I love to spend another day with him. I thought of how one of my greatest fears in this life is to ever get a phone call that something has happened to one of my children. I thought of all these things that I have that this family just lost. I prayed for them, and I asked forgiveness for my selfishness earlier that morning.
As the family got in the cars to travel to the funeral home, many of them turned to thank us. It made me feel so small that they were thanking me for doing such a small thing when they are the ones that have paid the ultimate price.
I will never miss another one of these rides. I encourage any of you that ever have the opportunity to join in this small gesture to take that small amount of time from your life to support these families. Even if you don't ride, take that time to just go to the airport and support them. It means so much to them and you will never regret it.
God bless our troops.
I laid my head back down as he went to take a shower. As I lay there I thought about the ride we had planned for the day. It was a Patriot Guard ride for Sgt. Jason Dean Hovater. This was the information we had received from our local Rolling Thunder chapter...
"Sgt. Hovator and his comrades were killed Sunday when about 200 militants armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a remote outpost in Wanat near the Pakistan border. While the attack was repelled, U.S. and Afghan troops later abandoned the outpost. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy. Hovater had been in Afghanistan for 16 months.
'He only had a week left before he was leaving (Afghanistan),” his sister, Jessica Davis of Norris, told the Knoxville News Sentinel. “We were all excited to see him and be with him and hold him.'
She said her parents, Gerald and Kathy Hovater of Lake City, learned of her brother’s death when Army officers knocked on their door Monday morning.
Hovater and his wife, Jenna Hovater, were married six weeks before he deployed. He would have turned 25 on Aug. 10."
I laid there in bed and realized how selfish it was for me to turn this family away for the sake of a couple hours of sleep. I got up and went to join Sean in the shower.
The ride was a sombering experience, but I'm glad that I went. As I stood there holding our American flag while they unloaded this family's loved one from the plane, I thought of my son of the same age as this young man. I thought of my brother who recently got back from Kosovo. I thought of how I woke up this morning next to the man I love to spend another day with him. I thought of how one of my greatest fears in this life is to ever get a phone call that something has happened to one of my children. I thought of all these things that I have that this family just lost. I prayed for them, and I asked forgiveness for my selfishness earlier that morning.
As the family got in the cars to travel to the funeral home, many of them turned to thank us. It made me feel so small that they were thanking me for doing such a small thing when they are the ones that have paid the ultimate price.
I will never miss another one of these rides. I encourage any of you that ever have the opportunity to join in this small gesture to take that small amount of time from your life to support these families. Even if you don't ride, take that time to just go to the airport and support them. It means so much to them and you will never regret it.
God bless our troops.