We can't afford to lose many like Dostie

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Thomas Dostie graduated from Erskine Academy in 2002. He was a wrestler, a wiry 112 pounds.

He died in Iraq on Tuesday, a victim of the attack on a dining facility at Camp Marez in Mosul that claimed 22 lives. He was 20.

According to his high school wrestling coach, Pat Vigue, Dostie wasn't flashy, just solid. Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Vigue described Dostie as a wrestler eager to do what was asked of him. Working hard to improve. Wrestling because he loved it.

You hear about the rich spoiled athlete too often.

They hog the headlines and the highlights with their boorish behavior.

Too often, you only hear of the good athletes, the ones who deserve more accolades and thanks than we could possibly ever give them, like Dostie, when there is a tragedy.

The list of athletes killed in action is ever growing. Because of this, we hear about the good athletes more and more now.

Everyone had heard of Pat Tillman, who turned down millions of dollars from the Arizona Cardinals and walked away from a blossoming career in the NFL to become an Army Ranger. He was killed in Afghanistan in April.

In central Maine, many remember Jay Aubin was on the wrestling team at Skowhegan Area High School. He was killed in a helicopter crash in the opening days of the Iraq war.

J.P. Becksmith, Scott Zellem and Ron Winchester were all former football players at the Naval Academy, killed in Iraq earlier this year.

To go back even further, there's Bob Kalsu, an offensive tackle on the Buffalo Bills, killed in Vietnam in 1970.

And so many others, like Dostie, who never reached the higher plane of competition, but were athletes just the same.

So many obituaries of the soldiers coming home include something along the lines of: "A football player at his high school," or "He enjoyed playing basketball."

The same qualities that make a person a good athlete are the qualities that draw them into military service. A dedication to teamwork and hard work. Mental toughness. A desire to push yourself to improve and ignore setback.

A willingness to sacrifice.

There's always the sacrifice. The most selfless and promising of us always make the biggest sacrifices.

And that makes it even sadder when we lose them.

By all accounts, Dostie had those qualities. He signed up for the Maine National Guard as a junior at Erskine and served as a mechanic in the 133rd Engineering Battalion. His friends and family describe a young man happy to go about his business quietly.

We need more people like Tom Dostie, but because of their nature, their drive to help and do the neccessary dirty work, we keep losing them just when we need them the most.

Dostie's family and friends will miss him because of the joy he brought to their lives. The rest of us will miss him, and Tillman and Aubin and all the others lost not because they were athletes, but because of the ideals that made them athletes are the ideals we need the most.

We sacrifice the ones we can least afford to.

Travis Lazarczyk Ð 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com