It has been a while since I have written a diary, for various reasons. One reason is that my daughter is to be married, soon, to an Army man. He may be deployed again soon, so when I saw the sweet smile of Lee Meredith - and then the picture of his body being unloaded at Dover - I thought of how much I have grown to love my future son-in-law - and I wept.
I cannot imaging the sadness that his family is experiencing right now, so ask you to join me tonight in praying for them, and for another fallen hero, Pfc. Lee Meredith. Let us honor his memory and his service to his country.
An Army Carry Team Receives Lee Meredith at Dover AFB
Bless everyone who kept this diary up for Lee tonight.
Pfc. William L. ("Lee")Meredith
Pfc. William L. Meredith, 26, of Virginia Beach, Va., died Sept. 21 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 569th Engineer Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.
http://www.defenselink.mil/...
He went to Ocean Lakes High School with Sandy Mahoney's children. More than a decade ago Lee and her son, Chris, became best friends. When Lee's dad retired from the Army and took a job in Central Virginia, Lee didn't want to leave his school and friends in Hampton Roads. Mahoney told WAVY.com Lee's father let him stay with her family.
"We had to share bunk beds. We fought over who got the top and who got the bottom," remembered Chris Mahoney. "My mom would give us a ride in the morning [to school]...at the end of the day we'd walk home together."
Then last year he decided to join the Army. "He said I'm going to go ahead and join the military and he did and he came here after basic training in his uniform," Mahoney said. "He always talked about going in the Air Force or Army," Chris said. "He was proud to be in the uniform." Mahoney explained the Army clothes were not the only change. "He didn't have a lot of self esteem but when he walked in, with his uniform, I never saw him stand so tall and proud as in his uniform," she said through tears.
http://www.wavy.com/...
"He was a great guy," said Chris Mahoney, his best friend of 10 years. "He never hated anybody. He tried to get along with everybody."
Meredith loved to play video games, visit Ocean Breeze Waterpark and hang out with his friends, Chris Mahoney said.
Meredith celebrated his 26th birthday earlier this month, Sandra Mahoney said, and was planning on proposing to his longtime girlfriend.
http://hamptonroads.com/...
Lee Meredith left high school, and muddled through series of unfullfilling jobs until he joined the Army. Those who knew and loved him said finding a purpose in life made him a changed man, one who stood tall, and served his country with pride. In just over a year in the service, Lee Meredith had already earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. That tells you all you need to know about the type of soldier Lee Meredith was.
He was scheduled to come home on leave October 1st.
What is excellent,
as God lives, is permanent.
Hearts turn to dust,
hearts love remains.
Hearts love will meet the again.
- Emerson
God Bless Lee Meredith.
About "I Got the News Today" (IGTNT)
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended 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. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories. The series, which was begun by i dunno, is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, greenies, blue jersey mom, chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, MediaProf, rb137, and TrueBlueMajority.
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.