Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson
"IGTNT" stands for "I Got the News Today." The phrase refers to the Beatles song, and it is meant to symbolize that terrible knock on the door that any number of families got today, bringing with it the news that a loved one has died. IGTNT is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind.
The Department of Defense announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Spc. Deangelo B. Snow, 22, of Saginaw, Mich., died Sept. 17 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attached his vehicle with a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
The picture is Deangelo Snow, in Army fatigues, posing with (from left to right) his grandmother, Chris Jernigan; his cousin, Teandre Snow; and his mother, Deloris Snow.
MySpace page offers glimpse into fallen Saginaw soldier's personality
Deangelo Barnell Snow was many things, family members say: Loving friend, artist, popular at school, frequent dancer.
The 22-year-old Army specialist, who died Friday when insurgents attacked his vehicle in Iraq, also was a MySpace frequenter. Snow's MySpace page is here.
The 2008 Buena Vista High School graduate’s site remained partially open for public view Saturday, offering a glimpse into Snow’s off-duty personality.
“Everythangs perfect now every sacrifice I made seems worth it,” Snow’s latest status on the social networking site reads.
Just weeks before his death, Snow drew praying hands and a dog tag tattoo for his mother. The artwork features two palms pushed together in prayer, a dog tag necklace with the words “Deangelo B. Snow” inscribed on it, dangling from the fingers. Sadly, this was one of the last gifts Snow’s son, Deangelo Barnell Snow, offered his mother before he left for Afghanistan with the Army in June.
Saturday friends and family gathered at the Snow home, grieving for the loss of their loved one. Snow's mom was unable to look at pictures of Deangelo, nor could she be in the same room as the photos.
As if the tragedy of this young man's death isn't sad enough, according to Mlive. com
Deangelo Snow was the son of Barnell Amos, the 35-year-old Saginaw man who was murdered along with 9-year-old Devin Elliot during a robbery gone awry last fall.
Snow died four days shy of the one-year anniversary of his father’s death.
Amos died Sept. 21, 2009.
Snow had seven brothers and seven sisters between his father and mother, along with a fiancée in Sharnice Scarborough of Saginaw
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The purpose of the I Got the News Today series is to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. It is one of the oldest continuous series on Daily Kos.
Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and is currently maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, a girl in MI, Spam Nunn, JeNoCo, Janos Nation, True Blue Majority, Proud Mom and Grandma, Sandy on Signal, CalNM, Wide Awake in KY, maggiejean and noweasels.
If you would like to contribute to the series, even once a month, please contact Sandy on Signal or noweasels
To see what these tributes mean to those who have lost a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan, please read Sandy on Signal’s story about meeting the father of a soldier at NN10.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.