5. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
6. To learn more about the life and death of Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, read “An Endless War’: Why 4 U.S. Soldiers Died in a Remote African Desert.” Rukmini Callimachi, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Alan Blinder and Thomas Gibbons-Neff write:
Some of Sergeant Wright’s family members did not realize he was in potential danger at all. He had told his maternal grandmother he was in Africa doing “paperwork.” Some now ask who, and what, the sergeant — their sergeant — was sent to fight.
“Are we protecting the United States? Who knows?” asked Ginger Russell, one of Sergeant Wright’s aunts. “You don’t think of your military in Africa. You’re talking to people who didn’t even know how to pronounce ‘Niger.’ We had to look it up on the map to see exactly where it happened.”
The Wright family is well aware of how the military works. It can trace its lineage in the armed forces to the War of 1812. Sergeant Wright’s father, Arnold, had been a soldier, and his mother, Terri, had been in the military, too.
But in a family of military men and women stretching back more than 200 years, Sergeant Wright was the only one who didn’t make it home, the family says.
Now one of Sergeant Wright’s older brothers, Will, who served in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan, is considering joining the military again. The idea pains their father.
“We’ve paid our dues,” he said.
More?
• See all the films in this series.
• Read our list of practical teaching ideas, along with responses from students and teachers, for how you can use these documentaries in the classroom.
• Want to make sure you never miss a film? Add Film Club to your Google calendar to receive weekly reminders and see our full publishing schedule for the 2019-20 school year.
