Thursday, May 10, 2007

Coming home


Sometimes it seems I get all the sad assignments. Today I stood in a funeral home parking lot to watch another Marine being brought home after dying in action in Iraq.

Marine Cpl. Charles Palmer II was killed in action Saturday when his Humvee struck an improvised explosive device (IED) killing him. His body was flown into Stockton airport this morning then taken to the funeral home to await burial with military honors next Wednesday.

The truly sad part of this is have shot this assignment before. I have photographed the grieving parents, the widow, the children left without their father. Tracy has lost 6 servicemen to the war. The last soldier killed in action will soon have his name etched on the marble face of the Tracy War Memorial.

The faces may change, even the city but the terrible loss remains the same from the war.

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