By Jack Kelly

As we near the end of this Memorial Day celebration, many of us are, most likely enjoying the nice weather and the collage of friends, family and BBQ grilling.  Through out this day, judging by Facebook wall posts and articles across the Internet, the majority of people have respectfully offered praise and remembrance to the fallen soldiers, for which this day’s purpose is derived.  Since I write and opine about all things, I envisioned writing a general piece of all soldiers giving praise.  But I just felt I needed to write something with more gravitas to honor some of these guys and girls.  This thought kept entering my mind, what can I write that is more than a simple “thank you.” How can I justifiably elevate one of these guys or girls, as I would a Tom Brady Mark Zuckerburg?

Then it hit me!!  Just write about one of the heroes that have died like I would like one of those supposed superstars.

So here it goes: Today, Monday 28, 2012, I salute Staff Sgt. Jonathan M. Metzger!

I do not personally know Jonathan, nor have I ever heard of him until I searched for a fallen soldier.  Here is what I know about Jonathan; he is 32, a year older than me, is from Indianapolis and died on Jan 6th, 2012: ”in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with makeshift bomb.”

A google search provided me with these websites: here, and here all talking about things about Jonathon, including his obituary.  I could not really find out anything else such as what type of music he liked or what sports he watched, or his politics or any other likes or dislikes.  But I want to know.

These things about him are and should be interesting to the rest of us.  After all, we seem to really care about these things about so many other non-consequential people, like athletes and other assorted celebrities.  So why not him?

This got me thinking, Jonathan being 32 would have grown up in about the same time period I did.  When he was in high school, did he like Nirvana or Pearl Jam?  What about Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog?  Did he and his friends sit around singing “Gin and Juice” in Indiana like we did here in Boston?  Were there some local niche music that his friends listened to like we did with The Pouges, or maybe he has heard of The Pougues?

All things I want to ask him

In one of the articles I read, it said Jonathan won a high school award for bench-pressing, which would lead me to conclude he liked weight lifting.  How much weight could he bench?  I wonder if liked hockey, being in Indiana, not likely, but who knows, maybe?

All things I want to ask him

Why did he enter the service?  Was he in trouble? Was he confused about his future and thought the military would help focus him?  Was it because of 9/11? Or maybe he just always wanted to serve America?

All things I want to ask him

If I met Jonathan, being from Boston, I would have to ask him about Larry Bird and French Lick, Indiana.  I would then ask who he thought was better, Manning or Brady?  I assume he would say Manning and we would counter point, back and fourth, why were both right.  I would ask how he felt about the Colts releasing Manning for a younger Andrew Luck?

All things I want to ask him

I would ask him what the guys and girls did to keep their spirits up “over there”.  Did they listen to music? If they did, what kind and who?  Did he like Bob Marley? Country Music?  Did he read books? Where did he meet his wife? What did he want to be “when he got older” and out of the service?

All things I want to ask him

Depending on the mood and comfort level, I would ask him what it was like “over there?” I would ask how he felt about the war in general.  I would ask him if he liked President Obama or if he was a Republican.  Again, most likely he was probably conservative considering he grew up in Indiana and being in the military would suggest he was, but again, he is not here so I can not ask him this.

All things I want to ask him.  But more importantly than asking him anything important or light,

I would simply want to shake his hand.

We all have opinions about the war in a political sense and we should exercise our rights’ and speak upon those feelings.

And when exercising those rights’, we will notice we disagree at times.  But what we should never falter from is the belief we are one country with a common purpose.

And another thing we should also agree upon is the fact that Jonathan Metzger is a hero and a person we should all salute.

If we ever meet someday, I look forward to a good Manning VS. Brady debate Jonathan.

Take a bow brother!!!!!!