Last month I was in NC for the battalion memorial to honor the 8 men who gave their lives this deployment. 2 sailors and 6 marines. It was a very moving ceremony and couple of days. At the ceremony they had speakers including a friend of the men who died to give a speech about their friends, we listened to the different prayers (for marines and corpsmen), listened to the final role call, taps and amazing grace on the bag pipes. An artist does portraits of the troops in all branches who have died, all 8 of these were paid for by a veteran who we didn't get to meet because he wasn't able to make it. At a dinner after the ceremony we were presented with the portraits as well as meeting the men on the committee of the Purple Heart Foundation (I do believe is what it's called? correct me if I'm wrong) and were presented with Purple Heart coins with our loved ones names, date, and location of death. Today I got the portrait of Ryley from the FRO for 1/6 and it made my day :) Now I need to decide where to hang it up!
