Be Thou At Peace...

There is a strange new reality that sets in due to myspace and facebook. I heard from a friend that another cadet was killed in Iraq recently and, as usual, immediately checked facebook and myspace. Maybe it's just habbit, but it's what I do now. People post messages there, but it's strange. You see...everything on the pages are written by someone who, while he or she may have been cognizant that death was a possability, their pages sure weren't written as "last words", so, what you see is who that person was...what they were thinking about in life. But, they are now dead...and the messages from friends all read as such.

You can tell when the person died based on the messages on the wall. For this cadet, a message from Jan 20th reads:

Just thinking of you and wanted to let you know! =)

whereas Jan 21st's first message reads:

Jake, I'm going to miss you more than words could say. You were a great friend and I will never forget all of the great times that we had together...from New York, to Pennsylvania, to North Carolina, to Nebraska...we partied everywhere and it will never be the same without you. I know that you are in a better place now and I pray that you will continue to watch over your friends and family that you left behind...we love you.

Well done brother, be thou at peace

Be Thou at Peace. We sing it everytime we sing the Alma Mater...it just hurts to think how real those words are to the class of '05 who have, again, lost one of their own.