This is the first kid from my hometown killed in Iraq - what an amazing life story cut short

[LynneSin]

My mom just told me about this story about someone from my hometown of Marysville, PA who was just killed in Iraq. Another dead soldier in a war that has no fucking justification whatsoever. What's amazing about this kid was that he was abandoned by his parents and eventually his grandparents but still this kid tried his best to finish high school and make something of himself. The one person he lived with was a friend of our family and a really great person who looks like he was a big influence on this kid's life. I'm guessing that David Dietrich joined the army because it was an opportunity for a guy trying to survive on his own, living out of a van and working two minimum wage jobs and yet still trying to keep positive on life. Perhaps if there was no war, the Army could have given him the opportunity to get training and a real job; maybe find true love and start a family, have a great future. Instead he's another comma in this useless war.

So this post is for you David Dietrich!

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http://www.pennlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1167796527257290.xml?pennnews&coll=1

Army Pvt. David E. Dietrich with friend Jamie Wolf. "I'll miss talking to him the most," Wolf says. "It's going to be difficult knowing that will never happen again."
Soldier's life was 'an inspiring story'
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
BY JOE ELIAS
Of The Patriot-News
MARYSVILLE - Jamie Wolf's best friend, Army Pvt. David E. Dietrich, promised to be her "maid of honor" if she ever got married.

He said he'd even wear a pink tuxedo.

"When you have a man like that in your life as a friend, that's willing to do that, you know he's a great man," said Wolf, 22, of Marysville. "But unfortunately, he got out of it."

Dietrich, 21, of Marysville, died Friday when the vehicle he was riding in was hit by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, Iraq. He was a 2004 graduate of Susquenita High School.

Dietrich, who had been in Iraq less than two months, was a scout at Camp Ramadi with F Troop of the Army's 1st Cavalry Brigade.

His childhood pointed to someone who could have ended up on drugs or in prison instead of the military, said J. Craig Raisner, a Marysville Borough Council member and Boy Scout leader.

"David's is an inspiring story," Raisner said. "Where he lacked family support, he had the community behind him."

Abandoned by his parents at 10, Dietrich lived with his grandparents, Raisner said. At 14, he was placed in foster care.

Raisner said Dietrich was placed in good homes in and around Perry County but always returned to Marysville, where he lived with friends, including Raisner, and classmates.

Edit note: I printed the article out and hung it up in my cubicle

[Binka]

1. What A Frigging Waste

RIP David your work here on earth is done baby. :cry:

[rwork]

2. We lost our first

Here where I live in Eastern Ok. Barely 19 years old. I saw his 2 brothers and shook their hands. One of them was driving a new Dodge pickup truck.I told them, don't ever join the Army. The older one driver of the truck said I am already in, going to Iraq.I thought of the signing bonus. These young men don't even have a clue about the Iraq situation. I know I did'nt when I was that age.The dead young man's Mother said in a newspaper interview, my son died for a political agenda.

[demnan]

3. We had a candelight vigil in my town last night

to honor the 3,000 dead who have been sacrificed to this unnecessary war. So if it makes any difference, 10 people in Woodbridge, VA honored him last night.

[LynneSin]

4. Actually I think he was post 3000

But tragic nonetheless. I think this kid could have made something of himself despite crappy childhood that he had.

[UrbScotty]

5. Best wishes to his family and his community. (nt)

[Imagevision]

6. So many good lives cut short over a mad man's obsession of victory over a

country that has fought for almost a thousand years, if it wasn't for the oil 3003 great people would be alive today and 22,000 wouldn't have been maimed and wounded. It's difficult to believe that this could be happening to America.