Sean Huze, "The Sandstorm"

My first response while reading the play was sadness. It was very disturbing reading about all the deaths and casualties. SGT Casavecchia was like a narrator for the eight Marines and their stories. The two stories that stuck out to me were LCPL Dodd’s and SRG Casavecchia’s. LCPL Dodd’s story made me the saddest because it was about killing hundreds of innocent people of all ages. In the beginning of his speech, he had no feelings to what he or others were doing. That all changed when he was walking through hundreds of dead bodies and came across a little boy. It made my stomach clench reading that scene and did now writing about it. SRG Casavecchia’s is about protecting a town and how gracious they were of the Americans. The way he described it sounded like a little town somewhere here where kids played soccer and no war. The people their accepted and went out of their way to accommodate the Marines in any way they could. He said that it was hard leaving because it was like saying something is more important than those people’s lives.
Each story had a different meaning and point to prove, and all in the end were very sad. People hear about the war daily and say how much they support it. I honestly don’t know if I support it or not because I am not clear on what is going on. Why? No one talks about it. Yes, it was hard for me to read each of their stories, but it brought to life what is going on over there. Yes, I understand there are bad people there, but is their life worth hundreds of innocent ones? I don’t have an answer to that, and if I did I am not sure it would make a difference. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want our troops of any group to be killed, but did we get victory when thirteen of our men were killed and hundreds of their people were killed? How many of those people have done something to harm us, or agree with the people that have? Those are questions that cannot be answered, and never will be. What had that little boy done that had to be repaid with his life? Or the families that so kindly allowed our Marines’ hospitality? It might seem as if I don’t support war, but I don’t think that is entirely true. I know that my freedom right now is from people losing their lives, and I cannot ever repay them. Yet, I believe that for everything there is a limit. If we are killing more citizens then the bad people who started this, is it worth continuing? How many innocent lives are we going to surrender to these evil people? I don’t want to have to do that anymore.
Sean Huze did a great job with portraying stories that even though might be upsetting, we needed to hear. Those eight Marines went through hell and lived to tell about it. I believe they should tell anyone who listens. They did things that I cannot even imagine in my wildest dreams. Were they the right things, or wrong things? There is no answer because at the time, to them they were probably doing what they thought was right. This play is very heart-breaking, but is beautiful in its own way.