Posted on 02/06/2005 8:54:53 AM PST by Rakkasan1
Hundreds of friends, family members, schoolmates and fellow soldiers packed into Arlington Hills Lutheran Church on the East Side on Saturday morning to pay their final respects to Army Sgt. Michael Carlson, the first soldier from St. Paul to be killed in the war in Iraq.
Carlson, 22, who died with four other soldiers Jan. 24 when their Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled over into a canal in the town of Mohammed Sacran, Iraq, was remembered as a strong, passionate, fun-loving young man whose life ended as he was fulfilling a childhood dream.
In a eulogy for his younger brother, Daniel Carlson said Michael wanted to be "part of something greater than himself." He read a paper that his brother wrote while attending Cretin-Derham Hall High School in which he dreamed of becoming a "soldier liberating people from oppression."
"He lived the life that he sought," Daniel Carlson said.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Rest in Peace, young man. Your country is proud of you.
This death is not he first. We lost a columnist and his driver in a canal. We saw members of the 82nd drown in a canal in a Humvee because they could not remove all the gear they had
on them under water. I would say this is not an uncommon event. God Bless them all
I pray daily for all our service people. I just don't know all their names.
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