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What do you say to a mom whose little boy grew up in the same child care and Sunday school rooms yours is now, only hers was gunned down in Iraq at the age of 21? Kieran politely asked her for one of the brownies on the table near her today, she smiled and said of course. He needed a little prompting to say thank you through the mouthful of chocolate. I'm contributing to one of the 4 memorial scholarships that have been set up in her son's name.

My family has a long legacy of military service, including creative weaseling by my father: he was drafted for Vietnam, but avoided that by enlisting in the Army Reserves & getting assigned to Korea for telecom work instead. Without that evasion, who knows if I'd be around. Armed Forces Day is always near my birthday, and for years I thought everyone on his base wore their dress uniforms and let me sit in a helicopter to celebrate it.

If I can help it, the military will remain a total mystery to Kieran.