the war hits home

A soldier from Elyria serving in the Army was just killed in Iraq. He was 23, graduated from high school 2 years after me. The article in the local paper, strangely, doesn't mention that he went to Elyria High (since I graduated in '98, I didn't know he had transferred to another school to play football).

The reason I remember him -- in fact, the only reason I knew who he was -- is because he was a sophomore in marching band my senior year. At Elyria High, there are so many students in band that the Freshman Band is separate from the Marching Band, which is grades 10-12. That means the sophomores are the newbies and get to experience the "hazing" at band camp. Well, my sophomore class was the last to endure the full brunt of the rituals, but when it came to my senior year, the chaperones let us shaving cream sophomores, but only if we did it in the shower room of the dorm, quietly, and only did it to those who volunteered.

Well, Danny was the first sophomore to gladly step forward for a faceful of shaving cream. And there were so few volunteers that most of us used up all our shaving cream on him, and we all remembered what a good sport he was. And that's the only reason I knew him, as I didn't really know him personally.

*sigh* It's a helluva lot more than 6600 miles from sophomore band camp to Iraq.

(Chronicle-Telegram articles here and here.)