Comments of CPT Andrew H Robertson

Comments of CPT Andrew H Robertson
Memorial Service for 1LT Robert C Oneto-Sikorski Company C, 1-155 Infantry, Task Force 2/11 ACR FOB Kalsu, Iraq
8:30 a.m. 02 November 2005

I am Captain Andrew H Robertson, Commander of Company C, 1ST of the 155TH Infantry, and 1LT Robert Charles Oneto-Sikorski was our Executive Officer. He also was my right hand.

I now ask that God gives me strength to deliver these words, and that either through me or in spite of me that His purpose and divine plan be unveiled.

No words or mention, no comfort or reassurance, no calm or counsel can diminish our anguish in loosing our friend. To compound that with losing a man that also wears the Army uniform, fighting day in and day out by your side through both enemy dangers and military bureaucracies creates a sadness unequalled and not describable with ink. Today, we indeed deeply and profoundly mourn but also celebrate the life of our Company’s most amazing person.
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On the 31ST of October 2005, while conducting an Infantryman’s task of clearing a danger area and looking for the enemy to prevent others from finding harm’s way, Charlie Company, 1ST of the 155TH Infantry, Task Force 2/11 ACR lost 1LT Robert Oneto-Sikorski. Ski, as we call him, gave his life when this spineless and pathetic enemy that we face used a buried and hidden underground improvised explosive device. I was with him that day.
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Now, I will tell you what I know about Ski. Ski and I formally met by the choice of our battalion commander. Charlie Company needed an executive officer, or XO, and Ski, candidly, had run out reasons to continue convincing the command group that he should remain in a Platoon Leader position. I do believe he holds the Mississippi Rifles’ record for consecutive years as a PL. As Ski once told me with a smile, “I learned that you can’t be a Platoon Leader forever, but at least I gave it a good try.”
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Ski held Charlie Company together. Not only through his actions as a fighting Executive Officer, ready and eager to leave the wire, – his boots were dirty – but also through the subtleties of his character helping us to coop with this experience of combat. He had a grounding effect to remind us that life is wonderfully bizarre. He alone taught me how to find my focus as a commander by telling me to take the fight and let him handle the rest. There is no question he was a greater commander than I. He put us all on the right azimuth as soldiers and leaders.
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Having been enlisted before commissioned, he knew each one of us first as a man then a soldier. He could relate to who we were beneath the camouflage. And, daily he did. He despised those who would rip a soldier for having a sleeve rolled twice or a boot un-bloused instead of first asking the man within if he was okay. Ski, that one is for you.
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He also helped us to weather the task of pulling CQ in the Charlie Company TOC with jokes, stories, videos and nightly guitar lessons. Ski could play the bass but thought it might be cooler to return to the Magnolia State as a guitar player. So, with two bottles of Febreze – allergen and antimicrobial – by his sides, he’d play you any Three Doors Down – a homegrown Mississippi Gulf Coast band – that you wanted to hear. And, he was never to be missed in the C Block slums when it was time to watch the next episode of The Shield.
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Ski also had our first enemy encounter. That’s correct, though the Impact ARCOM with Valor paperwork was kicked back 15 times on this one, Ski was nearly strangled in Kuwait when the Dr. Pepper he was drinking produced a hunk of cloth during one of Ski’s gulps. We wonder still today if that was part of the Find-a-Turban giveaway. It’s no wonder why from that day on he insisted on drinking only Sprite or 7-Up so you could see the bottom of the can before taking a sip.
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Decent. Confident. Funny. Actually, humorous beyond belief. The man with a kid’s holster, but he only spent $10. Nubs. Budda. Peach. American. Southerner. My sounding board. Father. Son. An Officer. A Soldier. Friend. His fabric was red, white and blue. He loved and defended our constitutional ideals not only in his civilian job, but even more so in uniform … he exemplified the citizen soldier. Never did he pelt with a harsh word or demoralize another man. He loved soldiers. With all our flaws and peculiarities, he showed tolerance toward us all.
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Ski savored life and in so doing helped us to remember to taste joy even while in this environment of war. He helped us to unveil the ridiculous. And, he chose to mitigate the moments of urgency with laughter. His very presence gave us confidence.

Find a man’s true character in his love for family. Ski would constantly share photos and letters of his three children and tell stories about what each one would do. He never ceased to expressed his love for his mother and most recently his pride in how see handled the storm that hit Mississippi. As his bunk mate, I’d witness him wake up in the full of the night to ensure he could get to the phone center in order to catch his family at an appropriate hour back home. Again, no man is greater than his family. To Ski’s family, I want you to know how much he loved you.
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Our greatest person. What does that mean to cite someone as a great person? Again, as our greatest person. Person is the portion of a man that reveals his character. It is the outward reflection of what is within. It’s not only how we are engineered, but also how we chose to be wired. And,when I say Ski was our greatest person, I mean that he truly was.
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> How do I convince you so? Well, if not my rhetoric, then certainly what I
> physically found. The day Ski was taken from us, I sat by my bunk trying to endure and process the loss. Asking God for help. I took the time to look through the
personal belongings Ski had on him that day. Within his wallet I not only found a note of encouragement to “Bobby” from “Mom”, but also names. You see, at the beginning of this year Ski had created a tracking board for us when we arrived in Iraq with each soldier’s name, blood type and social security number on a laminated tag. The names Ski carried with him into battle were the names of our men that were killed in action in May 2005. I wept. Because, at that moment the hugeness of his character and what an American patriot he was cured within my very soul.
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> TOMORROW
Will we ever again find joy? Will the smiles from laughter return? Does this piercing of our hearts and this burning in our gut heal? Can we again pick up our rifles and escalate the fight?
Resoundingly, I can tell you, “yes”. Our wounds heal. The scar leaves a reminder, but it toughens our resolve. The magnitude and horror of this is not easy. But together and with time we do repair ourselves mentally. We do return to joy. And, we do so to honor Ski. To diminish life based on the events of one day would be to
diminish Ski’s love of the living. Ski would have it no other way,absolutely no other way than that we continue to live. To live. To delight. To fight this enemy. To win one for the greater cause of being an American soldier.
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I remember sitting in the TOC one evening with Ski and SGT Powell. We had our usual debate about the greatest rock-n-roll bands and the Constitutional and Republican Parties. But, then we found a more deliberate discussion. We spoke of God and what our understandings were of His creation and ourselves. And, I learned that evening of Ski’s knowledge and curiosity of God. I saw that God’s Holy Spirit was at work in his heart. And, in the days after I realized by watching Ski and his interaction with his men and fellow soldiers that he was truly showing the Body of Christ. The Lord simply does not give us any burden that we cannot carry.
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Iraq in and of itself is not worth the life of Ski. But, it’s just not that simple. What we are here for. What we are here to do. The dangers that we daily assume. The dangers that few dare and most never understand. We are here for us. We are here as soldiers. We are here for a word called liberty. And, whether the people of Iraq ever get it or not, we have honored what it means to be an American warrior. As soldiers, this is how we are composed. And, as soldiers, to deliver freedom is our swan song.
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Ski, I will miss arguing with you that Led Zeppelin is a better band than Pink Floyd; that wool socks are better than cotton; that the iPOD is a superior product to the MP3. Watching the Doughnut of Misery diminish and marking the 2”x4” monthly calendar. Agreeing that taxes are our greatest enemy; that the Silver ice cream is the only thing good that the Arabic world has ever given us; and, that our men deserve better than how some have been treated by their own back home. I think you’ll get the understanding when I close by saying that I truly do “Wish You Were Here.”

Charlie Company. Death of our fellow soldiers. The hurricane devastating our homes and businesses back in Mississippi. What this Company has been asked to endure is beyond comprehension. The casualties of this war have been all of us. But, we still stand. We still have the spirit of the fight within.

We still have a mission to complete. From this moment forward, this one is now also for Ski.