Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality. ~Emily Dickinson
I Got the News Today (IGTNT) is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one.
The beautiful forget-me-nots were created by llbear.
Since 2003 there have been 4474 US casualties in Iraq and since 2001 there have been 1728 US casualties in Afghanistan. Source.
Tonight we honor the memory of:
Sgt. Daniel D. Gurr, 21, of Vernal, Utah
Spc. Jinsu Lee, 34, of Chatsworth, Calif.
Spc. Mark J. Downer, 23, of Warner Robins, Ga.
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Sgt. Daniel D. Gurr, 21, of Vernal, Utah, died Aug. 5 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), Okinawa, Japan.
According to the Desert News while looking at a photograph Tracy Beede held of her son Friday afternoon, she said that it's hard to imagine that he was always a mama's boy. He worried about me. He'd call my friends and ask, "how's mom doing?"
Of course, Beede feared for her son's safety, too. Less than five hours earlier the worst of those fears became reality when the mother of four answered a knock on the door and found two Marines and a sailor standing on her porch.
"I knew," Beede said.
Gurr enlisted in the Marine Corps before entering his senior year of High School. According to his mother, he wanted to be part of the military since childhood. As a boy he loved to play soldier.
At age 17, Gurr convinced his parents to allow him to enlist in the Marine Corps. He choose that branch of the service, his mother said, because "the uniform was better, so he could pick up more chicks."
"That's a 17-year-old kid," she said.
But Beede didn't find that 17-year-old kid when she traveled to Camp Pendleton, Calif., to watch her son graduate from boot camp just months after he finished high school.
"He'd gone from the little boy I'd sent to boot camp to a man; a through and through man," she said.
The last time Gurr spoke with his mother was on July 27, her birthday.She said he was thrilled that the place where his unit was living finally had air conditioning, but he still longed for a real shower. Despite those hardships and the dangers of combat, Gurr was happy, his mother said.
"He was hot and tired, but loving it," she said. "He loved his platoon. They were his family, his brothers."
Beede said the loss of her son has left her feeling numb, but she believes he died in the service of others doing something he was always meant to do and that he squeezed every experience possible into his brief life.
"I did not see a moment since Daniel's been born that he didn't enjoy life," Beede said. "He lived life to the fullest."
That life included playing soccer and serving as a student body officer at Uintah High, where he dipped and kissed the school's female principal after accepting his diploma, friends and family recalled Friday, a memory that brought a mix of tears and laughter.
"At 21, that boy lived a full life," Beede said.
She said her biggest fear now is that people will forget her son and his sacrifice.
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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Spc. Jinsu Lee, 34, of Chatsworth, Calif. died Aug. 5, in Kunar province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
The Department of Defense is investigating the death of Spc. Jinsu Lee.
Officials said 34-year-old Spc. Jinsu Lee died Friday in Kunar province, Afghanistan due to a non-battle related injury. His cause of death is still under investigation.
The Army said Lee's service awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Combat Action Badge. He was posthumously awarded the Afghanistan Campaign Service Medal with Star, Army Good Conduct Medal and Army Overseas Service Ribbon.
Officials said it was Lee's first deployment overseas since he enlisted in the Army on Aug. 5, 2009 as a Unit Supply Specialist.
Lee is survived by his wife and three daughters.
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The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
Spc. Mark J. Downer, 23, of Warner Robins, Ga. died Aug. 5, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
Spc. Mark Downer was a US Army Combat Medic and is survived by his parents and one child.
The attack on Downer’s unit was separate from an insurgent attack on a Chinook transport helicopter that killed 30 American troops Saturday, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Downer's awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Army Service Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the NATO Medal, and the Combat Medic Badge.
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Click here to read the series as begun by i dunno, and is currently maintained by Sandy on Signal, noweasels, 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, CalNM, Wide Awake in KY, maggiejean, racheltracks, kestrel 9000, JaxDem, and Cathy.
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.
The IGTNT logo was created by Timroff.
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.