Occasionally I visit the website of the Gresham Outlook, the paper in Gresham Oregon where I went to school. I often find news of people I knew from Oregon, most of which is not happy (newspapers aren't the best place to find positive news).

This morning I read that Drew Jensen, a kid I knew in school, had died of injuries sustained on duty in Iraq. Drew was the younger brother of a friend of mine, Shane Jensen. Shane and I had French class together for two or three years, plus a shared history at Damascus Middle School.

Drew was a captain in the infantry. He was shot in the neck by a sniper while attempting to help a fellow soldier after a road-side bomb explosion. After several months in a hospital, he asked to be taken off life support and passed away September 7, 2007.

There was a great article in the Seattle Times about Drew. The eighth-grade history teacher mentioned in the article was Stephen Corkett, who was also a very big influence on my early interest in history and military strategy.

The family also set up a site about Drew here.