His final blog entry ends with a promise to his wife of ten years: “I will see you again, in the place where no shadows fall.”

It was a quote from Major Andrew Olmsted’s favorite television show, Babylon 5. He chose the words in case the unthinkable ever happened. It did.

Andy Olmsted was a military blogger deployed near Sadiyah, Iraq. He posted on the milblog Obsidian Wings under the name G’Kar (a pseudonym again taken from Babylon 5). Olmsted was also a regular correspondent for the Rocky Mountain News and maintained what he called a “vanity blog” at AndrewOlmsted.com.

On January 3rd, Olmsted became the first U.S. combat casualty of 2008.

Perhaps you heard the story a few days ago, first picked up by Andrew Sullivan after Olmsted’s friends posted his last message to Obsidian Wings — a moving farewell left behind in the event of his death. It said, in part:

I suppose I should speak to the circumstances of my death. It would be nice to believe that I died leading men in battle, preferably saving their lives at the cost of my own.

There is nothing in the comments which introduce Olmsted’s last post to indicate whether he got his wish, dying heroically to save his own comrades. As it turns out, he did not. He died trying to save the lives of his enemy.

According to his men. Olmsted’s patrol was pursuing a group of insurgents. Olmsted stepped from his vehicle to plead with three of them to surrender, so that his troops would not have to kill them. A nearby sniper took his life. Captain Thomas J. Casey was also killed as he rushed to Olmsted’s aid.

Olmsted’s last post asked that nobody politicize his death. If you comment on this article, snarfd asks that you respect his request. But we’ll say this much: a hero dies for his or her comrades. To die trying to save an enemy is even more remarkable.

Link: Obsidian Wings and The Rocky Mountain News