Candlelight Vigil for Sfc Tommy Tucker- 9pm Friday the 24th

[Caoimhe]

at Friendship Park in Madras, Oregon. You can't miss the park, as you drive through town going southbound, you will see a chainlink fence covered with flags, ribbons, flowers, helmets, poems, letters, stuffed animals, etc.

I know Madras is out of the way for most Oregonians, but if you happen to be heading to Central Oregon for a weekend of recreation, please consider attending and showing the Tucker family that we are all one big family!

Here is the story from our local paper. It's only once a week (we are such a small, tightknit community) and this is the first paper to feature anything about this tragedy.

http://www.madraspioneer.com/

The Madras Class of 1999 (of which Tom was a graduate) is raising money to help pay for airfare for family from Kentucky to attend his memorial.

I am not one to hang yellow ribbons, but I must admit that my heartstrings have been pulled every day that I drive through town. Every reader board says OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH YOU or PRAY FOR THE TUCKER FAMILY, and there are so many flags and yellow ribbons, it seems like a parade route. In the long run, it means little, and today in Iraq, five more soldiers were killed... but I can't help but think that it speaks to the family, of how much this community and our children mean to us.

Each son or daughter we lose in this senseless war is a damned tragedy.

[LWolf]

1. Flags around town here,

south of Madras, were at half-staff on Friday. I hadn't been keeping up with the news; I have 2 weeks of unread newspapers stacked up; I had to ask what had happened. I did see the big story in the Bulletin on Sunday. I'm a little late stopping by here, but I thought I'd mention that he was remembered locally anyway!