Six UTM students have been taken from our midst and are now on their way to fight in a country they’ve only read about in newspapers or seen on television.

They have answered the call that was issued, and each will be in our thoughts and prayers as these students brave the battlefield and display their loyalty to our country.

One of our own Pacer staff members, the lovable Joe Dacus or “Schmo” as he was known, has left.

While we wished him luck as he stood in his uniform, he continued to be the Army man we’ve come to known and love and loathe, and said he was “doing it for his country.” We took pictures, making him laugh with silly expressions. He was enveloped in hugs and then left to prepare for his wedding a few days away.

He left us earlier this week.

The rest of us remain here, enclosed in the capsule of Martin, Tenn. Our bubble, which had been left to protect us, has been burst with this news.

We used to go through our days, paying attention to the news and only listening when it was appropriate.

Iraq, which seemed eons away before in pictures and magazines and video images, is now almost in our backyard. We now can look at these things and say with certainty “I know someone who is there.”

A lot of people are questioning whether we should be in this war, whether George W. Bush is acting prematurely. Still others will talk nonstop of how it is our duty to be involved in affairs with Iraq and that it is all a perfectly legit excuse.

In all honesty, it doesn’t matter if you believe there should be war or not. Whether you agree that Bush is right or you think he's fighting “Daddy’s War”, there is still no arguing the one truth we all agree with and must now face: there will be six empty seats around this campus.

These six individuals will not be in our lecture halls, dining tables, auditoriums and dorm rooms. Or even the Pacer office late on Thursday nights.

While the UTM community that remains learns the geography of Kuwait, our classmates will be experiencing the harsh climate and humid air familiar to the region. When we wait in line for lunch, they will be under a mess tent in the middle of the desert, picking sand off their food.

While we take classes, go on dates, and participate in everyday activities, they will be overseas, in a foreign country with unfamiliar faces, fighting an enemy who has no qualms about suicide bombers and will shoot to kill.

To these six individuals, who are giving up their lives so that ours are protected, thank you.

You may not know us, but we will always know you.

Candace Cooper is a junior communications major from Unicoi and the Opinions Editor.