Remembering Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht

The AP reported that the one thousandth KIA of the war in Afghanistan occurred a few days before Memorial Day:

The 1,000th American serviceman killed in Afghanistan was born on the Fourth of July. He died several days before Americans honor fallen troops on Memorial Day.

Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht was killed Thursday when he stepped on a land mine in Helmand province that ripped off his right arm. It was the 24-year-old Texan's second deployment overseas.

Leicht had begged to return to the battlefield after a bomb took out his Humvee in Iraq. He spent two painful years recovering from face and leg injuries, all the while pining for combat in letters from his hospital bed.

He finally got back to the front lines, but was killed less than a month into the tour of duty he desperately wanted.

"He said he always wanted to die for his country and be remembered," said Jesse Leicht, his younger brother. "He didn't want to die having a heart attack or just being an old man. He wanted to die for something."

I paused there as I was reminded me of another man who wished to die in his boots: Robert Louis Stevenson. A few years ago I bought a copy of Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. It's an amazing book for young children  learning to use their imagination as they also learn to read. Here's a poem to remember Marine Cpl. Jacob Leicht by:

HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

Dear Uncle Jim, this garden ground,
That now you smoke your pipe around,
Has seen immortal actions done
And valiant battles lost and won.

Here we had best on tip-toe tread,
While I for safety march ahead,
For this is that enchanted ground
Where all who loiter slumber sound.

Here is the sea, here is the sand,
Here is simple Shepherd’s Land,
Here are the fairy hollyhocks,
And there are Ali Baba’s rocks.

But yonder, see! apart and high,
Frozen Siberia lies; where I,
With Robert Bruce and William Tell,
Was bound by an enchanter’s spell.

There, then, a while in chains we lay,
In wintry dungeons, far from day;
But ris’n at length, with might and main,
Our iron fetters burst in twain.

Then all the horns were blown in town;
And, to the ramparts clanging down,
All the giants leaped to horse
And charged behind us through the gorse.

On we rode, the others and I,
Over the mountains blue, and by
The Silver River, the sounding sea,
And the robber woods of Tartary.

A thousand miles we galloped fast,
And down the witches’ lane we passed,
And rode amain, with brandished sword,
Up to the middle, through the ford.

Last we drew rein—a weary three—
Upon the lawn, in time for tea,
And from our steeds alighted down
Before the gates of Babylon.

Remembering Sgt. Denis Kisseloff

Photos Courtesy Doug of Leaning to Starboard

Video above courtesy Bob McCarty who also provides this report:

The body of Missouri Army National Guard Sgt. Denis D. Kisseloff, 45, was returned to St. Charles County, Mo., Friday afternoon, one week to the day after he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan. In the video above, I capture the arrival of the funeral procession at Buchholz Math Hermann funeral home in St. Peters and learned a little bit about the sergeant assigned to the Farmington, Mo.-based 1141st Combat Engineers (Sapper) from Sgt. Jeff Stevens, his team leader.

Fabio Polenghi

Boston.com has this photo and caption of Italian photojournalist Fabio Polenghi:

Freelance photographer Fabio Polenghi, 48, of Italy lies on a stretcher at Police Headquarter Hospital Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Bangkok, Thailand, after being shot during a government crackdown on anti-government protestors. Polenghi was later pronounced dead by Thai doctors. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)

While the red shirts espouse a non-violent transformation of Thailand's political establishment there is at least one group associated with them that is willing to use violence to achieve their ends: the black shirts. The Thai Army would naturally be suspicious of anyone in a black shirt. This is why rule #2 from Andrew Marshall's Bangkok Safety Tips is: "Wear light clothes, e.g. white top, light brown trousers. Avoid wearing black which is intimidating." To be a bit more direct, don't dress in a way that would lead one side in a conflict to see you as a nefarious assassin. It's possible that Fabio was wearing body armor or some other outer layer (like many other journalists); however, the camera bag still strapped on him suggests otherwise.

Rest in peace, Fabio.

Update:

Photo District News reports that Polenghi was wearing a bulletproof vest when he was shot:

Polenghi was shot in the stomach when police rushed a barricade where protesters were gathered. AP says that according to other journalists at the scene, Polenghi was wearing a bullet-proof vest. He was rushed to a hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.

Cross Coverage:

• New York Times picture of the day
• Funeral for Italian photojournalist Fabio Polenghi May 24th
• A report from The Right Perspective

Remembering Rose Friedman

The wife of the late Milton Friedman, Rose Friedman, has died at the age of 98. She collaborate with her husband on many of his economic endeavors, but perhaps most famously as co-author of Free to Choose. She also collaborated with Milton on his best known book: Capitalism and Freedom. The book Free to Choose followed the release of PBS series by the same name which is available at IdeaChannel.tv. A brief Wikipedia entry has more details about the book and TV program.

Remembering Dorothy

Please send your condolences and prayers to the family of the Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft. Jim's mom, Dorothy, passed away last night.