What a sweet story! I'll be praying that the young man makes it home to raise his son!
(And a great idea about contacting the newspaper ... thanks, Ken!)
Over the years, I've developed an occasional, though long term e-mail correspondence with several reporters and columnists around the country..simply becuase I send them a short note tllign them how much I enjoyed a particular piece. One once told me that 99.6% of ALL correspondene to newspaper folks is criticism..and most of it is unprintable..so getting an innocuous little "attaboy" is a rarity for many of them, and quite enjoyable..