News of soldier's death

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Hey Gang,
As you guys who were here on Friday know, Friday was a really rough and frustrating day. Well, when I got home my wife met me in front of the house and put all that frustration in a new light, she informed me that my nephew who was serving it the 10th Mountain Infantry in Afghanistan was killed. He went out a hero as far as that goes. His platoon was on a mission and as usually happens in the mountain passes they were ambushed from behind. He was a gunnery mate working the front line when it occurred. His unit commander was shot and he ran back to the backline and started covering for him until they could get him out. He took out several before being struck with an RPG. They say he died almost instantly. My sister has received calls from the Governor of Maine and Senators from Maine etc. He will be rewarded the Gold Star or whatever the reward is called (I am not up too much on Military stuff??). You never want to hear of a 19 year old dying, but at least he went out protecting his brothers in his unit and his country and saved many lives in the process.
My sister and family back home are doing as well as can be expected. At least they have some measure of peace knowing his loss did make a difference and that he was well loved by his unit. The commander himself called her up from Afghanistan and talked for 45 minutes to her and gave her all the details and told her how much he loved him and respected him. The whole unit was devastated by his sacrifice, but they were also so proud of him. The Army is not allowing all the details to be released at this time, but they said all would be released by the time of his funeral.

My Mom called me this morning and said his picture is all over the TV and papers as more and more information is leaked out. Below is a link to the article in Maine Sunday telegram, the largest paper in Maine, giving a superficial coverage of his death in case any of you are interested.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/state/060813soldier.shtml

I have also attached a photo that sadly my sister received from the commander not 3 hours before they told her he as killed. Andrew is in the middle. The commander shot is the tall man on the right, and the shorter commander on the left is the one who called my sister. So strange to have all three parties in the photo involved in what literally ended up being only an hour or so before his death. Fate can be strange at times.

I am going to try and get in as much of the day as I can, but if I cannot concentrate enough to be effective, I will go home. I just wanted to share with you guys what he did and let as many know how proud I am of him!!

Rick