Free Republic

The parents of 25 year-old Navy Medic Michael Vann Johnson Junior said they learned from Johnson's wife, Cherice Johnson, in San Diego today that he was killed in action Tuesday. His sister Janisa Hooks says he was tending to wounded soldiers when shrapnel from a grenade hit him in the head. Johnson's father, Michael Johnson, said his son was serving as a corpsman in the Third Battalion of the Fifth Marine Expeditionary Force. Hooks says that "he did it for us, so we can walk around the United States and be free. He made peace with God and himself...

Delivering tragic news to military families tough way to make a livingBy James V. WalkerWhen 1st Sgt. Terry Canty arrives at the doorstep, she's wearing her sharpest Army dress uniform, pressed and polished. She carries a letter, just paper, but heavy all the same."Normally, when they see me, the family is expecting to get bad news just because of how I'm dressed," Canty said.It's the moment every military family prays will never come, opening the front door to learn a loved one has been killed. But for the officers, like Canty, who bear the news, that moment comes all too...