What price liberty?

I have just come across a report that Mr. Roy Valez of Lubbock TX has received news that his youngest son, Pfc. Andrew Velez, 22 was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan. This news would of course be heartbreaking for any father. However, compounding this tragedy is the fact that Mr. Valez already has been down this sad road. In November of 2004 his older son Spc. Jose A. Velez, 23 was killed in Iraq. I am utterly unable to fathom the grief this father must be consumed by. The letter below was written to a lady suffering from a similar loss more than a century ago, and recently became somewhat famous from the movie "Saving Pvt. Ryan." I post it as a reminder of the dreadful cost of war. Memory Eternal!

Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts:
DEAR MADAM: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln.