This post was meant for the other day, but the website was freezing up on me.

Paul called a few nights ago and told me that a kid from my high-school class died in Iraq last Monday (Jan 24)...they didn't tell his family until Thursday (and his parents were on vacation so his brother had to call and tell them on Friday), and the Pentagon finally released the information this yesterday (Feb 1), but people knew about it beforehand because word gets around, of course. His name was Mike Carlson; he was in my JROTC class in high-school. I think he was always planning on going into the military -- it seemed like it would have been good for him. Anyway, he and four other soldiers were in a tank that overturned into a canal in Mohammed Sacran, Iraq. They were going to be moved to Germany this week (which is always a stop there before going home - probably don't generally want to send people straight home from a combat zone, i guess).

Anyway that's all. I sent his family a card today. In it I said that when I found out last spring that he was serving there I had planned on writing him a note saying thank you and good luck and whatnot, but I never got it sent, so I was sorry. (Of course I also said how sorry I was to hear the news, but I added that on.)

It kind of makes the whole war more real, doesn't it?