The sky over New York was a perfect blue on Sept. 11, 2001, when two planes, without warning, hit the World Trade Center. Thousands of random people died.
Coastal Point • CHRISTINA WEAVER
Terry Clifton holds the book of her son’s words.
Chad Clifton watched the coverage at Cape Henlopen High School. It was his first day as a junior. He turned to his best friend, Rob Kunzig, and noted that this would be his war. His mother, Terri Clifton, knew too that their lives would never be the same.
The sky over Ar Ramadi, Iraq, was a perfect blue on Feb. 3, 2005, when a missile, without warning, killed Lance Cpl. Richard Chad Clifton, a random soldier.
Just moments before, he had been performing his duties as a radio operator, laughing and joking with his friends, as his family was to learn. He died instantly, no time for a flash of regret for the pain he would cause at home – the one thing about being at war that caused him angst. His death saved fellow Marines, and he was awarded a purple heart. At his request, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery and Terri accepted the flag that draped his coffin.
Chad was a random soldier and an extraordinary 19-year-old. However, that awful day, two weeks before he was due to leave Iraq, is not the end of his story.
Chad was a writer, and his mother had made him a promise: to keep him alive through his words. It was a promise she hoped never to realize, made during their many “what if” discussions before he left.
The result is the publication of “A Random Soldier: The Words He Left Behind.” The book comprises Chad’s words from notebooks, letters, e-mails and text messages, brilliantly interwoven with Terri’s commentary.
Chad was not a stereotypical Marine. He was short (his ROTC uniform had to be specially made). He was slight (no more than 140 pounds soaking wet, noted the officer who acceded Chad’s volunteering for the specialized dangerous assignment that they both knew was risky).
Perhaps more in common with his comrades, he was also fun, fit, gung ho, patriotic and extremely courageous.
In a nutshell, Chad could have become whatever he wanted. He wanted to be a soldier. More than that, he had wanted, since he was a small child, to go to war.
This was a child who taught himself to read at age 4, so he could get a skateboard, and whose favorite toys were plastic soldiers who fought strategic battles in the peace of the fields that surround his parents’ Prime Hook home. By third grade, Chad had read all of Dickens’ books and went on from there to military histories and biographies.
By 15, he and Rob were active participants in an adult writer’s group where, each week, he read excerpts of what he hoped would be his first novel. That is until “The DaVinci Code” was published. “My plot has been usurped,” he rued as he made coffee in the local bookshop where he worked.
“It isn’t just his writing that I recall so vividly,” said a member of that group, “it was his ability to give helpful critique to others, around the circle.”
Indeed, Marine recruiters recognized Chad’s intelligence when they told him and his parents that it was his brain they wanted; they had lots of willing fingers to pull triggers, but this young man was different.
Terri and her husband, Richard, did not raise Chad and his younger brother, Ryan, to be military-minded. They raised them to be open-minded and to make decisions based on knowledge.
Chad had “an old soul” from a young age and they knew that at some time they would have to deal with his focus, one could almost say predestination, to become a soldier. Not only did he visit battlefields and join the ROTC, but they took him to Arlington National Cemetery. Chad knew what he was getting into and so did his parents. Reluctantly, but eventually unequivocally, they gave him their support.
“A Random Soldier” is a book for people of all political persuasions and all ages. It doesn’t preach or opine. It’s just the words of a young writer who wanted to experience the life he expected someday to write about.
Tragically, it is not all his words, as many notebooks never made it back from Iraq. It’s also the words of his old friend, Rob, with whom Chad text-messaged his thoughts and feelings — some typical teenager stuff and some as wise as the philosophers of the ages. And it is the letters of his Marine family, amongst and for whom he died. Lastly, it is the fulfilled promise of his mother, written in agony, out of love, with purpose.
On Saturday, April 7, 2007, Terri Clifton sat on a high stool in the studio behind their house at her first book signing. Her co-author, Chad, was present in the photos and words that were placed with such elegance and dignity around the room. In the background was soft music. It was from the very CDs he listened to in Iraq.
The book is so complete that it lists in the back the music he listened to as he wrote in his journals, and the artists and writers who inspired him. On the day the two Marines came to their home, Ryan went to Chad’s room. Soon, “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones filled the house.
Terri credits Heather Lowe of Milsboro for her editorial assistance and layout design. Ryan Clifton designed the cover. Richard Clifton has been the family rock. “‘Just read the book,’” he said, when asked what message he would like taken from the book signing. Rob Kunzig, who wrote the forward, used the same words.
“A Random Soldier” is not an easy read. It is a must read. The salt from my tears as I read it on Easter Sunday seasoned the meaning of the day with the richness of its words, power of language, unconditional love and support of family, and dedication and courage of a random one who will live for ever in the minds of his readers.
It is currently available in limited edition, pending reader response, and can be purchased directly by e-mailing Rccliftonstudios@aol.com.