Manchester-born soldier, 21, killed in Iraq.

[NightTrain]

Excerpted from today's Journal Inquirer:

Robert William Hoyt, 21, beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, friend, warrior, combat veteran, and hero, died Saturday, December 11, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV while conducting convoy operations. Hoyt was assigned to the Army's National Guard's C Company, 1st Battalion 102nd Infantry, Bristol, Connecticut.

Robert Hoyt was born in Manchester. He grew up in Mansfield, was a 2001 graduate of E.O. Smith High School, and enlisted enlisted in the Connecticut National Guard in 2002.

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I, too, grew up in Mansfield and attended E.O. Smith. Though I never knew young Mr. Hoyt or his family, it still broke my heart to read that obit. This is the closest yet that the Iraq war has come to affecting me directly.

Tomorrow night, I'll be hosting my college radio show, THE SOUL EXPRESS, on WHUS, the radio station at UConn. It's my annual holiday special. I plan to dedicate it to the memory of Robert William Hoyt.

How many more will it take, Mr. Bush, before your bloodlust is satisfied? :cry:

[GetTheRightVote]

1. It is the * greed which is driving him so it will not end until we make it

end, I pray for all the soldiers who are suffering and lost to this very cold hearted man's war, but I also pray for us because we live so close to him being in the states. I feel badly for the family of this young man lost all to soon.