War Hits Home

Day after day the numbers add up and you become immune to them somehow. Faceless kids in a faraway place.

The smiling kid on the left is Cpl. Jordan Pierson 1st Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. 21 years old. UConn student. Milford resident. Dead from wounds received while on patrol in Fallujah.

I didn't know him. I don't know his family. But there's a good chance I know others connected to him. And that connects me somehow. The grief and devastation within his family must be unbearable. It must be that way for every one of the families of the 2,622 soliders who no longer walk this earth because of this nightmare. This boy -- this baby -- from the town I love -- is dead before he ever had a chance to live.

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