War through a mother’s eyes - Entertainment, Books - Navy Times

War through a mother’s eyes

Sue Diaz answers the telephone two days before Christmas 2005.

On the other end is a 101st Airborne Division captain with bad news.

Spc. Roman Diaz, her son, has “sustained injuries caused by an IED. That’s an ‘improvised explosive device,’ ma’am.”

Mom already knows the definition.

“No need for that extra bit of information,” she thinks to herself. “Those three letters had become as familiar as PTA used to be.”

“Minefields” tells a heartfelt, often dramatic, frequently humorous and sometimes tear-evoking tale, a journal-like collection of stories, photographs, drawings, news headlines providing context, and intermittent letters to Roman in the voice of his pet turtle. You won’t miss a heartbeat if you pass the tortoise. Instead, concentrate on moments such as the anguish in Roman’s voice when, at home in 2006, he asks his mother to look over his shoulder at the Iraq photographs on his Mac.

“The photos came and went with little commentary,” Sue writes. “That is, until a haunting close-up of Roman stared out from the [screen].

“‘The day this picture was taken,’ he began. I waited. He started again.

“‘The day this picture was taken was the worst day of my life.’

“‘Oh, Roman,’ I whispered. ‘That week in June?’”

That week is in June 2006, when three soldiers in Roman’s platoon were attacked. One soldier died and two were kidnapped and killed later. In counseling sessions after the attack it was learned that four other soldiers previously had participated in the murder of an Iraqi family— including the rape of a 14-year-old girl.

The plight of 1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, is told engrossingly in author Jim Frederick’s 2010 book, “Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death.”

Reading Frederick’s book, Sue learns some of what Roman has not been able to tell her: He was nearly killed — “should have died” — in an IED explosion that hit him and three other soldiers on patrol. Two did die.

She also reads that her son showed courage in combat.

“You did some really brave stuff,” she tells Roman.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he replies.

“And gosh, you went through a lot!”

“You’re right, Mom. We did.”

Major trauma, minimal words. “Conversation about that deployment doesn’t come easy, even now,” Sue writes, but a reader senses that she will hear and write more.