marines - 

i am saddened to say that our small town in Montana lost a Marine in Iraq over the weekend. this is the first combat death from our town and even our county that i know of since vietnam, maybe even longer than that.

at the newspaper i work for, the announcement of this young man's death will be on the front page, but i want to do it right and with respect to him and his family - and i will NOT invade the family's privacy in this matter by calling or visiting them. my feeling is that a visit from a reporter is the very last thing that this family needs or wants.

compiling the infomation we do have, the article will give his name, the year he graduated, where he was stationed and that he had previously served in afghanistan earlier this year. at this time, i feel that this information and the fact that he was KIA should be enough information for our readers.

what i am wondering is, is there a hymn, a poem, a bible verse....anything along those lines, that would be appropriate to go with this article? for instance, i know through TimberGhozt that FIDDLER'S GREEN is the hymn of the cavalry, and would make a good closing for this article had the young man been CAV.

is there a similar passage, poem etc. that would be fitting at the end of this article and pay the proper resect to this young marine who gave his life for the freedom of others??

please let me know - and thanks -

KP -

good news - it's all taken care of. the head of the local american legion is an "old marine" and he was extremely helpful in working as a liason between the family and me. he understood my position and worked his ass off today to lend a hand. between his awesome assistance, the mother's in this terrible tragedy and my own poor effort, i do beleive that we managed some good stuff. i will post it over the enxt day or two - possibly tonight, if i get the chance.

thanks to everyone for all the suggestions, both public and private. i've been able to make good use of them all, and then some.