No more letters from Lt. Avery. The death of a penpal hits home.

[Beausoir]

They wrote to him about their families, their pets, their favorite sports, and the "mystery readers" and "estimation jars" in their class at Chanhassen Elementary School.
He wrote them back that he was stationed in Mahmadiya, south of Baghdad. There was a school in the area he patrolled, he said; it had 400 students, no glass in the windows, no bathrooms and no running water. He thanked them for writing him, and wished them a happy Christmas.

On Wednesday, First Lt. Garrison Avery, 23, a Tennessean originally from Lincoln, Neb., and a budding pen pal of Jane Johnson's 27 fourth-graders, was killed, probably by a roadside mine. The school got the news the next day. As many as 10 kids in the class broke down and cried.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/225632.html

I just don't know how I would feel if my child was in this class. Chalk up another "victory" for Bush.