Free Republic

Photos by Plea Deal and [Mrs] Trooprally Washington, November 17, 2006-- There is a faraway, yet penetrating look in the eyes of parents who have buried a child, no matter how well they have gotten on with their lives, no matter how much they are doing to honor their hero. It is a look that says, "Nothing is worth getting worked up about. Can you not see that small matters are insignificant? I am here, but part of me is here no longer; I live to honor that part." This 83rd week of the DC Chapter's Friday night troop-support rally...

Rifle ready, Cpl. Joe Johnson nimbly stepped around mounds of trash and pools of raw sewage, handing out strawberry Twizzlers to scabby, barefoot children. Cpl. Joseph Johnson on patrol near Husseiniya, Iraq.photo by Louie Favorite/AJCIt saddens Johnson to think this desperate poverty and filth were the last things his son saw before he was killed last year. For more than a year, Johnson fought to follow in his son’s footsteps to Iraq. There was a sense of soldierly duty, but what most drew him here was his desire for vengeance. “I can shoot an insurgent and not lose a bit...