Christopher Swanson was a 28 year old soldier of the 75^th Ranger Regiment. He took a B.A. in History from the U. of I. at Urbana-Champaign before enlisting. William Newgard graduated from John Hersey High School 20 months ago. This 20 year old soldier was a member of the 26^th Infantry Regiment.

The former died in a car accident in Wyoming. The latter died in a car too, but it was no accident. He was killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) in Iraq. They never met but they will be buried near each other in Arlington National Cemetery.

Both had funeral home visitation hours that began at 3:00 this afternoon and both will have funeral services that will be conducted in churches at 10:00 tomorrow morning. Kevin, my 4 year old grandson, and I visited both this afternoon.

These two were the third and fourth missions he has attended. (I am standing with Kevin in Photo 80. It is the only picture of me in this collection.) Even though Patriot Guard missions are “boring” he understands that standing with flags is very important. He understands that the soldiers are dead and that they will never be alive again. He understands that they died fighting the bad guys and that there are more bad guys out there. He understands that if the soldiers don’t face them, the bad guys will try to kill the rest of us.

Eight months ago, Captain Shane Mahaffee died near Baghdad and was buried near my home. Kevin and I visited his grave several times after he was interred and before his headstone was in place. (It felt to me that Kevin and I should monitor his place of final rest during that interim.) On our first visit we found the dirt a setting for a battle with a toy HMMWV, a toy jet fighter and several small plastic soldiers positioned on a hill.

On our second visit, Kevin contributed a toy tank and several more soldiers. When our travels take us past that cemetery, Kevin usually makes a comment – “Shane’s soul is in Heaven but the bad guys are still trying to hurt us” – something along those lines. It has been five and one-third years since those thousands died on Manhattan, at the Pentagon and over Shanksville. It then became inevitable that men like Shane and Christopher and William would also die.

It is the job of the United States Army to face the most terrible people on the face of the Earth, anywhere on the face of the Earth. Kevin understands that. That why he wants to go with me even though he knows that Patriot Guard missions are so boring.

Pictures from Arlington Heights and Lincolnwood.