someone you should know, Michael M Phillips

Michael M Phillips is a first rate journalist in my book.
I read about his recent article from Blackfive. It is very moving.
The Last Letter Home was published this week in the Wall Street Journal. This article details the aching duty of writing letters home to families that lose soldiers in combat.


Philips also wrote the book The Gift of Valor.
Cpl. Jason Dunham’s parents were given his Medal of Honor in January of 2007.
Dunham died in 2004, days after throwing his helmet and his body on a grenade in Iraq to shield the Marines around him from the blast. The book The Gift of Valor, by Michael M. Phillips, is about Cpl. Dunham’s life and military actions.

After reading his book I sent an email to thank him for his telling CPL Dunham's story. He took the time to thank me in an email in return. For me. it is the small things that matter and his character impressed me.


Also, on the front page of the Denver Post there was an article about the Post Commader at Fort Carson.
He lost a son in Iraq and a son committed suicide.
Fort Carson— On the underside of the two stars that rest on each shoulder of Fort Carson's top general, the names "Kevin" and "Jeff" are engraved.
This is one way Maj. Gen. Mark Graham honors his sons, two young men who did not live long enough to see their father pin on those stars.
Second Lt. Jeff Graham, 23, died Feb. 19, 2004, when a roadside bomb exploded in Kalidiyah, Iraq, while the young leader protected his platoon.
Kevin Graham, 21, a top ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky, hanged himself June 21, 2003, from a ceiling fan in his apartment. No one saw the lethality of his depression.
"They both fought different enemies," Graham said during a recent interview.