Perspective: A Father With a Coffin, Telling of War’s Grim Toll

Carlos Arredondo leaned toward the coffin in the back of his pickup truck yesterday and renewed a promise to his dead son, one that he has kept for more than two years.

In a whisper, he vowed never to let his son’s death be forgotten. He closed his eyes and slid his right hand across the American flag stretched over the coffin, his fingertips tumbling over each of its faded red stripes.

“This is my whole world,” he said, facing the truck, his arms open wide. “This is my burden.”

Read the rest at the NY Times