i thought this was important to post here.
http://www.wilknewsradio.com/pages/6...tentId=5623537
Quote:
Posted: Monday, 22 February 2010 10:30AM
Scranton Marine, 19, Killed In War
A Scranton teenager killed last week in Afghanistan is being remembered as a friendly youth and a proud Marine with a close-knit family.
Military authorities say 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Larry M. Johnson, of Scranton, died Thursday while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Officials say he joined the Marine Corps after graduating Scranton High School in 2008 and had only been in the country for four months.
Dominic Rodriguez, who had known Johnson since both were toddlers, describes him as a laid-back person who enjoyed hanging out with his buddies as they watched MTV. Scranton High principal Eric Schaeffer recalls him as a polite, friendly student who looked forward to joining the Marines.
Johnson's funeral will be held either Thursday or Friday.
i wanted to talk this kid. when i first saw the news, i didn't really connect to it, because i didn't know who it was. he looked familiar, but Scranton's not the biggest city in the world. it wasn't until i saw who his parents were that i realized that i knew this kid.
his family were neighbors of mine, when i lived in Hilltop Manor. they lived across the way. i didn't really speak much to his parents, but i didn't speak much to anyone in that neighborhood. i did deal with this kid, though, on several occasions, and never for anything good. he was constantly stealing stuff from our porch, vandalizing the main office area, as well as people's cars, and the occasional petty theft. eventually, his parents had enough, and stopped letting him hang with his friends, all of whom now have some kind of criminal record. he did well in school, i hear, and became a normal teenage kid.
they moved out of the neighborhood eventually. i ran into this kid, i'm assuming well before he shipped out. he remembered me, even without my dreadlocks, and said hello. we chatted for a bit. i asked about his parents, how were things, the usual chitchat. he told me that he was joining the Marines, and i praised him for that. this wasn't the kid that i caught breaking into my car anymore. this was a young man, who at a very early age decided, he was going to do things right. i don't see joining the Marines as something taken lightly, and i told him so. the act itself is an act of faith and courge. i thanked him, wished him well, and reminded him to keep his head down.
i ran into his parents yesterday, at the laundromat. i was sitting outside, reading, when i saw his mother walking towards me. i introduced myself, and she remembered me. i conveyed my condolences to her and her husband, and we spoke, about living at Hilltop, about what a pain in the ass he was, and how he straightened out. after awhile, only she spoke. i listened.
after a few minutes, and some tears, her daughter came out with the finished laundry. as she left, i told her that i was proud of her son, and i believe most people in this town felt the same.
there's no real point to this, just something in my head just now. maybe i just wanted to say something for this boy, who was on his way to being a man, a boy i barely knew anything about, except that he was wise enough for his few years to know when he was messing up, and knew enough to change that. maybe he was a man already. isn't that what a man does?
i'll never know, and neither will you.
