The Fallen

The price of freedom is a heavy one. I believe that what is happening today in Iraq will ultimately determine whether or not the Western World remains free. People are dying on a regular basis to preserve these freedoms. Every now and then we are given a gut wrenching glimpse of who the fallen are, up close and personal, and what they mean to there comrads in arms and to the cause of freedom. They must never be forgotten.

Here are but a few names, followed by links to their eulogies.

COL William W. Wood

CPT Michael MacKinnon

CPT Raymond Hill

SPC Shakere Guy

http://thunder6.typepad.com/365_arabian_nights/2005/11/all_souls_day.html#comment-10883281

http://currierd.typepad.com/centurion/2005/11/soldiers_have_f.html#comments

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer, John Gillespie Magee, Jr.