Family plans for Marine's funeral instead of wedding

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D880B4Q80.html


The 20-year-old Marine from the Dallas suburb of Irving was to return from Iraq in two weeks to meet his son, Landon Heath, born four months ago, and marry high-school sweetheart, Amanda Story. "Instead of planning a wedding, we have to plan a funeral," said Story, 19.

Serrano was killed Sunday when he was struck by small-arms fire in the chest in the Al Anbar Province. The vast western province, west of Baghdad, includes the flashpoint cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

He is the second Marine killed in Iraq from the school. Spc. Josiah Vandertupil, a 2002 graduate, was killed Oct. 14 when his patrol came under fire in Baghdad. Serrano had proposed to Story on Valentine's Day and they were hoping for an intimate family wedding when he returned on rest and recuperation leave in two weeks.

Students are "shocked it's the second one we've had," said teacher Danielle Keith, who had him in her marketing class club. "It really has affected them — sparked discussions about Bush getting our troops back".

:(:(:(

He has that magical ability. Countless weddings in Iraq have been interrupted for funerals too.

I said a prayer - I hope he is at peace and moving towards Enlightenment.

At least a part of him was left behind to comfort his family - his son and his fiancee.

This war is ending, and our troops are coming home! And so it is! (A little prayer).

and married with kids so young?

Or in this case NOT married and with kids.

Although marriage seems optional these days, even with children. Which only contributes to the statistics on children living in poverty. sigh.

Still, in a lot of communities, getting married straight out of high school is just what you do. If you're planning on college rather than getting hired on at the plant your father works or at the Wal-Mart (or rather than joining the military to get the fuck out of Dodge), generally you're free-thinking enough and ambitious enough that you're gonna wait.

The other part of the equation is that they've been terrified into believing that if they have sex before marriage, God's gonna strike them dead and they're going to burn in hell forever. So of course they're going to get married at the first opportunity to deal with all those fucking hormones working on them. There's also a little bit of the needing the little woman at home to take care of them thing too.

No pun intended, BTW.

At that age, they're still too immature to see how short-sighted they're being.

Out here in the boondocks you wouldn't believe the number of two or three kid 'families' where the parents aren't even 25. When there's little in the way of education, young people tend to have a lot of unprotected sex. When the female gets pregnant, one or both parties needs to get or keep gainful employment, because their parents won't help. With no education, the choices are generally between wage-slavery at someplace like Walmart, or manual labor, or the military. The parents then spend fifteen or twenty years raising a herd of kids on next to no money, often resenting the kids for the 'burden' they represent. Their kids can't get a decent education, and the cycle is repeated.

said teacher Danielle Keith, who had him in her marketing class club. "It really has affected them — sparked discussions about Bush getting our troops back".

questioning * in Irving Texas? how much death will it take for people to wake the f*ck up.

Modern antiballistic armor is really quite good. Generally, to be killed by a hit to the chest, either your enemy has to be wielding really advanced ammo--which obviously isn't the case here--or else your armor has to be substandard. I love how we've got money for missile 'defense' and pocket nukes, but not enough money for little things like bullets and armor.