November 13, 2004

Faces of the Fallen: Pictures and basic biographical info on the US soldiers who have died in Iraq. It's a WaPo link, but I think it works without logging in. If not, your good friend bugmenot will help.
  • Very nice link, mandyman. I'm seeing lots of 19, 20, 21 year olds. Which of course makes me think of their parents' grief. But I also see lots of guys in their 30s, and some in their 40s. Do you think this is because of the use of the Reserves in Iraq? Does anyone know if the average age of those killed in this "war" is indeed higher than it was in, say, Vietnam, as I'm assuming based on an admittedly small sampling?
  • Well, this time around, the US is using a professional army + the reserve. So I guess that career soldiers are more likely to be in their 30s and 40s than the conscripts they sent to Vietnam. I do wonder about the youngsters: newly recruited or reservists?
  • Michael Woodliff, 22 yrs old, from Port Charlotte Florida was killed by a bomb the same day my son was born. I'm not religious, but I pray for his parents. And I pray that I never recieve the same phone call that they must have.
  • While scrolling through the long list of names I noticed an Uday. CNN has similar info, plus graphical breakdowns of fatalities by month/yr., age, race, gender and ones for killed/wounded/country.
  • Good point, Richer.