Master Corporal Erin Melvin Doyle

KIA in the Panjwayi District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, 11/8/2008.

http://www.ppcli.com/files/Last%20Post%20Inserts/Serving%20Patricias/MCpl%20Doyle.pdf

And

SPC Ray Joseph Hutchinson (Hutch)

KIA on patrol with Alpha Co 2/502 101st Airborne in Mosul, Iraq, 12/7/2003.

http://www.rjhfoundation.org/bio.html

They do not grow old as we who are left grow old.

And

As always:

For Captain Tamara Long, USAF

Born: May 12, 1979

Died: March 23, 2003, Afghanistan

You fly with the angels now.

The room was ornate in a way that put rococo to shame. On the walls, many of the sub-details in the gilded reliefs incorporated fractals, so that one could have examined the gilded scenes and abstract curlicues with a microscope and not run out of exquisite detail. The base for the gilding was a white substance similar to ivory, but with an opalescent sheen that no elephant tusk could ever boast.

All in all, the effect would have given a Himmit a heart attack, had one of those worthies tried to rest on that surface, and had it had a heart. The other surfaces were similarly ornate, reducing the Himmit on the carpet to a body surface of merely gothic levels of detail that shifted quiveringly. Every hour or so, the Himmit placed a forelimb against its head, as if it was in pain.

In the center of the room was a large table of stone. In the stone was a sword. From the sword emanated a voice that was heavily modulated to prevent identification.