Another Snohomish County resident has made the ultimate sacrifice while in service to this nation, joining the list which already includes five people from Snohomish County, 82 from the state of Washington and 4,023 names of men and women nationwide killed while serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.
Marine Lance Cpl. Shawn Starkovich, 20, of Arlington, who was killed July 17 in Al Anbar province of Iraq, will soon be added to the washingtonpost.coms Faces of The Fallen Web site (http//projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/) joining Army Spec. Justin Herbert, 20, Arlington; Army Spec. Jordan Hess, 26, Marysville; Army Sgt. Charles Matheny IV, 23, Stanwood; Marine Pfc. Cody Calavan, 19, Lake Stevens; and Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Starr, 22, Snohomish, who were all killed while serving their country fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan.
While the American public and elected officials continue to debate whether to stay in Iraq or leave, men and women in uniform will continue to make the ultimate sacrifice. And with the total number killed already exceeding 4,000, its easy to view them simply as statistics rather than sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, or fathers and mothers. They are not statistics; they are members of our communities whose deaths impact family, friends and the communities in which they lived. Remember their names Shawn Starkovich, Justin Herbert, Jordan Hess, Charles Matheny, Cody Calavan and Jeffrey Starr honor their sacrifice and hope that no one else from our communities will join them on the list of Americas fallen heroes.
And while we honor those who have died, we should not forget or overlook those who continue to serve. Arlington resident Suzie Carter, spurred by her nephews deployment to Iraq, has been preparing and sending care packages to American troops in Iraq. Carter is looking for donors, individuals and groups, as well as local businesses that would be willing to host collection boxes for care package supplies. If you would like to help her in her efforts to support the troops, call her at 425-315-5709.

STF

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