Posted on 04/27/2011 1:04:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Rosemary Brown is standing over the grave of her son at Arlington National Cemetery when someone catches her eye. It's a boy in khaki shorts and muddy shoes, juggling a clunky camera and the Motorola Xoom he got for his 17th birthday five days earlier.
...His website, preserveandhonor.com, is a reverent catalog of the fallen, and one young man's response to a scandal of Army mismanagement, mismarked graves and unmarked remains that has rocked this hallowed place for two years.
"It's a tool to help remember people. They can go on and think, 'Wow, look at all these people who gave their lives just so I can walk around,' " Ricky says.
....Ricky didn't have his driver's license yet, so he hitched a ride with his mom on her 45-minute commute from their home in Stafford, Va., to her workplace in Washington. He hopped the Metro the rest of the way to the cemetery....
His focus was Section 60, where about 700 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried, more than anywhere else in the country.........
Ricky took it all in. This is a side of service he had never fully appreciated, even for a military brat — his great-great-great-grandfather fought at Gettysburg, his father is a retired Army sergeant first class, his stepfather is a retired Navy lieutenant commander and both of his brothers are Air Force senior airmen. (He intends to apply to the Naval Academy at Annapolis and wants to be an officer.)
"Sometimes I look at the birth date and they are about the same age as my brothers, or a year older than me. It puts a whole new perspective on life to think there are 18- or 19-year-old kids who give their lives," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I’m glad you pointed it out because it bothered me to use that original headline.
DoD should give him the contract but he doesn’t look as if he would ever be the owner of a disadvantaged minority, or woman-owned small business (8a). Some crony minority owned business has had the contract to do this work and has only been screwing it up. Sorry, competent whites who care about doing the job right need not apply.
Somehow this kid will contribute (already has). He’s had good role models and is one himself.
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