Stephanie Richter

Drake University

             I find myself in serious reflection of the meaning of love and the value of a good life as I sweat my days of school, two jobs and balancing a content life.   I now pick out memories of my good friend Michelle and say to myself, “If I can be more like her, I’ll do OK.” 

            Michelle Witmer was a young woman recently killed in a planned ambush in Baghdad, Iraq.  She was serving in the Wisconsin National Guard and had been serving in one of the ghettos in Baghdad for about a year and a half. 

            When she and I and her twin sister Charity got to be friends in our Waukesha West high school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, I admit that I underestimated her strength and never guessed she would have gone overseas in war.  Charity and Michelle were young women taking advantage of the benefits of serving in the National Guard and being able to go to school as well.  She received her call to leave, surprised, but knew her duty and responsibility; it meant a lot to her to be called to fight and defend the United States.

            While in Baghdad, the sweetness, selflessness, and love of life and God served her as she served others.  Her mission was to help train Iraqi police and monitor one of the most severely affected ghettos of the city.  In her “spare time” she volunteered to help the Iraqi children at an orphanage, Sister of Charity, down the street from her station. 

            Yes, the name of the orphanage is just a coincidence.

            Her night shifts 7 days a week were long and trying; she did, heard and felt many terrible things that no one should ever have to experience.  Nonetheless, intense fear didn’t stop her.  She woke after resting and moved on with a smile.  That was Michelle. 

            At her funeral service last Wednesday, the 14^th of April, her surviving family, Charity (her twin), another sister, two brothers and parents, received Michelle’s honors from the Governor of Wisconsin, Jim Doyle.  Among the awards presented by her General in the Wisconsin National Guard were the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, the most praiseworthy awards our country gives.  To the state of Wisconsin and the United States, Michelle’s death and great service in war made her a hero.  To me, she was a hero in high school.  She was who she was and wasn’t afraid to be just that.