The Being Conservative team saw this heart-wrenching yet sobering reminder of our troops’ sacrifice and wanted to share. This is a photo of Landon. His father, Marine LCPL Andrew Carpenter, was killed in Afghanistan a month before he was born.
Lance Cpl. Carpenter was killed in Afghanistan February 19th of this year.
Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Carpenter, a member of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was shot in the neck while on patrol in southern Afghanistan. The bullet severed his spinal cord. His heart stopped and it took officials 43 minutes to revive him. Medical officials later declared the 27-year-old brain dead.
~~~ Father Kevin Carpenter spoke with The Daily Herald on Saturday from Germany, where his son was hospitalized. He and his wife flew there last week to spend time with their son.
“We got to tell him we love him. We got to see him. And even though he wasn’t there, we got to hold him,” he said.
The Marine’s father said officials tried their best to keep his son alive and considered flying him back to the U.S. to let his wife see him, but they believe he would have died during the flight.
Crissie Ponder could not fly to Germany because she is pregnant and expecting to give birth in less than two weeks.
Andrew Carpenter joined the Marines in 2007 and was serving his second deployment in Afghanistan. Kevin Carpenter said his son was due back sometime this spring. He married Ponder in 2010.
She declined comment to the newspaper, but wrote on her husband’s Facebook page: “You will always be my soul mate and my best friend forever. … I look forward to seeing you in Heaven one day, baby.”
Cpl. Joseph Davis, who has known Carpenter since childhood, will escort the Marine’s body back to Tennessee once he reaches U.S. soil.
Davis said his friend was always happy wherever he went.
“He lived a full life,” Davis said. “He loved doing what he was doing. He was glad to serve.”
A section of street in his hometown of Columbia Tennessee was named in his honor.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jJg2BqMwj4[/youtube]
A former fetus, the “wordsmith from nantucket” was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1968. Adopted at birth, wordsmith grew up a military brat. He achieved his B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles (graduating in the top 97% of his class), where he also competed rings for the UCLA mens gymnastics team. The events of 9/11 woke him from his political slumber and malaise. Currently a personal trainer and gymnastics coach.
The wordsmith has never been to Nantucket.