I just returned from a memorial service for a Marine who died of wounds

sustained when an IED blew up his humvee in Iraq.

We live in a mountain community with about 1000 people and the Marine who died grew up here. His name is Adam and his parents publish our local monthly newspaper so just about everyone here knows them in some way. There was a large turn out and not many dry eyes in the crowd. I never saw so many men crying in one room before.

I can't help but wonder what his parents feel about the war. I talked to his dad who, like me, is a Vietnam war veteran. I didn't want to discuss the war but I told him I was glad that people support the troops more than they did when we were in Vietnam.

I suspect that since we live in a very remote and rural area there are many here who still support the war and think that Adam died for our freedom. He was on his third tour and had two weeks left in Iraq when he was wounded.

I can see how some people want to believe in the war because it gives them some kind of meaning for Adam's death. It would be hard to think that he died in vain but that's exactly how I feel.

Damn Bush and his god damn war. If there is a hell I hope he spends eternity there asking dead Marines like Adam for some kind of relief.

My heart goes out to the family of this young Marine.

It's just plain wrong.

And, it call all be laid at Bush's/Rumsfeld's/Cheney's feet.

He was so close to home, too. That's just awful. I can't begin to imagine how his parents feel . . . How many candles do we need to light tonight . . . *sigh*

When he gets to Heaven,
To Saint Peter he will tell,
"Another Marine reporting, sir,
Whose served his time in Hell."

and how their children died for freedom, I feel sad but I can't blame them. Who would want to believe that their child died for nothing?

or did he die and DOD not list him as one of the Iraq dead....

As for Adam :cry:

This scares me... My husband is a Marine in Iraq and he is due home in less than 2 weeks... It's terrifying that something can still happen so close to the end...

(His name is also Adam... which freaked me out a little...)

My condolences to your community--I only wish it wasn't necessary to send them...