America! His name is Grant Cotting

I thought I had this here, on Fauna, already but I couldn't find it. I knew this kid, not well, but I did know him. I originally wrote this for another friend of mine who also knew Grant. She knew him well and his death was very hard on her. His death is tragic and sadly one of far too many.

__________________________________________________ _______________

I knew a boy once. A nice boy, sort of a dork really. He loved his Mom and Dad, never in any serious trouble, and always a big smile with shy eyes that his hair was constantly falling in front of. I doubt if he ever had a serious girlfriend.

He was a funny kid. Not the mean kind who play jokes on others but one of those who liked to make people laugh. He could twist his face up pretty fierce if there was a good laugh waiting to be had from it. He enjoyed a good laugh, especially if he was the cause of it. He told a good joke too.

Tall and skinny, turn him sideways and you’d easily mistake him for a fence post. He wasn’t the strongest boy I ever knew but he was one of the truest. He stood by his friends and stayed by his word, even as young as he was. There’s a lot to be said for that. Knowing that, he never said much about it. He had honour.

Now don’t go thinkin’ I’m makin’ him out to be perfect, he was far from it, which made him even better. He didn’t mean to knock the lamp over and break it. He meant it even less the second time. But he owned up to it to save anyone else from getting in trouble, even though no one but the dog knew he did it the second time. He was that kind of boy. Never asked a single thing from Old Mrs. Reefles and must have hauled her groceries and raked her yard a million times. Or at least a few dozen. He just did it to help. He was that kind of kid.

I never had to carry anything heavy by myself if he was there. I never had to ask for help either. He did it because he thought he should, because someone had taught him it was right. I would have been proud to call him son instead of just friend.

Doing right was important to him. He was a good boy.

Doing right called him to service in a foreign land. A land where we are not welcomed as invited guests but seen as usurpers and supplanters of a long lived way of life, where we are not celebrated as a force fighting for liberation but tolerated as interlopers, killed in the dark of night as loathsome enemies. Others like him had gone before, others like him would follow, but he felt that now was his time to go. Doing right, he signed up and left. We were all so proud.

So he went. Because he thought it was right to fight beside the other sons and brothers, cousins and uncles, boys and men who had no stake in a country they didn’t want to be in, fighting people who only wanted their homes and a job and their families to be safe, to be able to walk at night without being shot; the things HE left behind, those very things. He was in a country fighting to give them what he had left at home. He did what he thought was right not for any gain of his own, not for profit or pleasure. He did it because he thought he should.

And when he comes home, which he will in just a few days, it will be in a plain pine box, keeping him still and straight, starched and pressed and clean for the last time, for that final journey that ends when the hole is filled and a good boy is a memory only.

I knew this boy, this child, this person who made me laugh and now makes me cry and I loved him. He was a good boy.

He passed in 2009 and you did write about it, I think.

I remember seeing it on another site. The only reason I remember is because someone I knew from CA also died at that time in Iraq.

Their deaths and the deaths and injuries (physical and mental) of hundreds of others who've served in these senseless middle-east conflicts are all tragic and far too many.

It's that time again.

It was posted in Fauna HELL (NP-17 Warning)
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...=Grant+Cotting

Gone but not forgotten..My boy left Thursday for his second time over there.

My thoughts, my prayers, my every precious wish to you and yours, Bill.

crap ... hit "post" instead of "go advanced" to preview.

My thoughts, my prayers, my every precious wish to you and yours, Bill, until he returns safe and sound.

I never seen the previous post & even if I did wouldn't mind seeing it again. I don't think reminders of Men who gave everything for others such as the individual you posted about can be seen or read to often & never should be forgotten. The service provided by many gets taken for granted all to often. We complain about minor things in our life's while others put so much line so we can even have them things. The memories of real hero's should never be forgotten & need to be passed on forever.

Originally Posted by Bill T

Gone but not forgotten..My boy left Thursday for his second time over there.

Bill, I thank you & your family & pray for a safe return.

Y'all remember it from 2009 because I posted about it then. I was angry and I posted it in the hell section. I didn't know Wes knew Grant. I'm so glad people knew him and remember him. I didn't see this post when Wes put it up~ I'm not around much anymore. But thanks
And more than that~ thanks to all who serve

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...hlight=cotting