30 May 2007

This is intense as it is important: A collection of information about each U.S. service member who has died in Iraq; Ghosts of war on MySpace

Army Private Clinton Tyler McCormick is buried in Florida, but his photo and his words are still online. They haven't changed since he logged in to his MySpace profile on Dec. 26, 2006 — the day before he was killed by a makeshift bomb in Baghdad.

In earlier wars, families had only the letters that soldiers sent home; often, bits and pieces were removed by cautious censors. Iraq is the first war of the Internet age, and McCormick is one of many fallen soldiers who have left ghosts of themselves online — unsentimental self-memorials, frozen and uncensored snapshots of the person each wanted to show to the world.

"I am a paratrooper, that means that I jump from a perfectly good airplane into who knows what," wrote Millican, who was 20 when he died.
Full article is here "Iraq's war dead live on - online"

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has compiled an exhaustive amazing collection of photographs and information about each U.S. service member who has died in Iraq and Afghanistan. It can be seen, here.

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