After the pep rally....."About that war"

About That War

But beyond the politics, there is a real war going on. And there were reminders of it even in St. Louis -- though not at the Ritz-Carlton.

Jo Mannies writes for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The human toll of the war was evident in a separate event: the arrival of the body of a local Marine killed in Iraq. As Bush finished his visit and Air Force One slowly disappeared into the eastern sky, a hearse bearing the body of Marine Cpl. Riley Baker passed beneath a giant American flag draped between two firetrucks at Lambert Field.

"The president's Boeing 747 took off at 6:30 p.m., just before Baker's 20-vehicle funeral procession began leaving a cargo terminal at the east end of the airport. Baker, 22, of Pacific, was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, Iraq, on June 22. His body was flown to St. Louis from Dover, Del., on Wednesday."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/29/BL2006062901115_pf.html