A Personal Memorial Day

Note: I'm withholding my AOTW until Tuesday, as it fits with that post. However, I'll spoil it a little and tell you that Nancy Pelosi is getting it.

I had been planning to do a pictorial remembrance of the many lives that have been lost throughout the years of sacrifice in war. However, that changed on Friday:

Sgt. Brian K. Naseman, a member of the Wisconsin National Guard attached to the Army 508th Military Police, was killed in Iraq on Friday, May 22.
He was deployed in the past month, first spending three weeks in Kuwait and was in Iraq for just a few days. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed.
Naseman is the son of Richard and Diane (Schmitmeyer) Naseman of New Bremen, and was a 1990 graduate of New Bremen High School.Naseman is survived by his wife, Peggy Cheimelewski Naseman, of Racine, Wis., and two sons, Cole and Carter. He has three sisters in the New Bremen area. [Link] [Another link]

His parents are my next-door neighbors. I watched as his family gathered, on the eve of a graduation party (the tent was already up), to begin the mourning process.

I lack the ability to speak further on this for many reasons; primarily because this is the most personal reminder I've had so far of the cost of our freedom.