James (Jim) Wilford Cawley gave his life to defend our freedom. He was killed during a firefight with enemy forces in Iraq on March 29, 2003. Jim was a staff sergeant with the Marine Corp. He left behind his wife, Miyuki, his eight year old son Cecil and his six year old daughter, Keiko. He was only 41 years old.
Jim served in the Marines for twelve years, traveling all over the world. He met his wife in Okinawa, Japan while serving there. After leaving active duty with the Marines, he attended the police academy in Salt Lake City and graduated with top honors. He served honorably as a detective and a member of the SWAT team. Jim loved his work and his fellow officers with the Salt Lake Police Department.
When disaster struck our country on September 11, 2001, he knew he'd be called back to active duty with his Marine reserve unit. He told his brother and sisters that the evening of 9/11 the only comfort he could find was to go to his children's room in the early hours of the morning and hold them tight.
Before he was deployed, he left a letter for his son telling him he knew it would be hard for him "...because I had a similar experience. When I was a little boy aged 6, my dad, your grandpa, was sent to Vietnam. I remember how much I missed him. Being a child, I didn't realize how hard it must have been on him, too. Unfortunately I have come to realize just how rough it must have been for Grandpa to be away from his children for a year."
In addition to his wife and children, Jim left behind his father, a brother and five sisters and 20 nieces and nephews. His family misses his keen sense of humor, his ability to quote from every movie he saw and the way he entertained them at family gatherings. His nieces and nephews miss the love that "Uncle Jim" showered on each of them. His children miss their daddy, their hero and the bedtime stories he told them every night. His wife misses her husband, the love of her life.
Jim was tough and kind, funny and smart, well read and a keen intellect. He was one of America's finest and brightest.
I'd like to thank Jim and his family for the sacrifice they made to insure that my family and I can sleep more safely at night. It's hard for me to imagine their grief and it breaks my heart that his little children will grow up without the daddy they adored. Thank you, Jim, for making the ultimate sacrifice for me. I will never let your memory die.
If you'd like to honor a fallen hero please visit Some Gave All.
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18 comments:
God Bless his family, and thank God that Jim didn't die in vain.
This is a beautiful tribute Barb...
We are indeed fortunate to have had men like Jim serving our great country.
My sincere sympathies to all his family...
What a wonderful tribute; I had goosebumps reading about it. That's for honoring this hero.
Barb, what a beautiful tribute. My husband and I watched Band of Brothers earlier this evening and I cried thinking of the sacrifices brave young men and women have made for our freedom generation after generation.
God bless Jim and his family for their sacrifice.
Beautiful tribute to a true hero, Barb!
What a beautiful tribute. Thank you for honoring this hero and the heros in his family.
Aesome!!!! My hubby is in the Army and should deploy next year and I really respect all these guys and girls who have this job to do. I liked reading about James. Nice Tribute.
It's not an easy calling, but some hear it and take it... God bless them all.
what a nice tribute..i dont know who these women and men do it..
i saw your comment at tammys and i wanted to come tell you my first name was sassy..haha
anyway, nice blog u have, i will be back to visit..
take care:)
Beautiful tribute, Barb. Thank you for honoring his memory and his family. My heart goes out to them for their sacrifice. I hope they will see this and know that he didn't die in vain.
God Bless him and his family. We recently lost a friend of my sons. I blogged on his recently as well. This is so nice of you to honor a soldier. God Bless you!
Very beautiful tribute. Thanks for sharing.
You can tell, just by looking at him, what a nice guy he was, don't you think? Sad, sad for his family. I wonder how they bear it. Very nice job you did giving us a feel of what he was like, and honoring his life.
So very touching and makes us realize just how much of a sacrifice these men and women do for us! My heart aches for all the families that lose a loved one in the wars...at least we know that they died doing what they loved...protecting our countries! God Bless them all!!
I've been completely at a loss since I did this tribute to Jim. Seems so disrespectful to put a funny or frivolous post on top of this. It made me so sad when I googled his name to get information on his life. His family has done several tributes on the web. Seeing his wife and children is what did me in.
So now I need to move on. Thank you all for commenting and understand his sacrifice and that of his family.
I can only imagine how this has touched you. Looking at his pictures and that of his family, it is just so sad.
Thank you for posting this, Barb.
Thank you for this beautiful tribute.
Hi, my name's Kevin Cawley, and Jim was my dad's little brother. I just want to say that it's such a bizarre feeling running into such a personal story in a random region of the internet, but it always really touches me to know people who appreciate the risks soldiers take every day. Thank you from me at least (and I'm sure the rest of the Cawley family would agree) for this post. I have to say it came at a really random time (I was just trying to find my wife's blog with the last name Cawley and saw instead "Uncle Jim's" name staring back at me).
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