"Where'd you go ?"

The Iraq Memorial Portal had its genesis between the fourth anniversary of President Bush's "major hostilities" carrier touchdown and Memorial Day '07. Our founders found themselves grumbling that with some 3,600 fatalities -- a straight-up average of 10 per calendar day -- any day could be Memorial Day but hardly any mention of fallen individuals could be heard in the media.

A study released last month (03/12/08) by Pew Research for the People and the Press confirms -- sure enough -- a decline in media coverage of Iraq from January '07 to the present. Not surprisingly, by March of this year, only 28% of respondents knew the number of fatalities in the war.

In our research last summer, the Portal came across this tribute posted at YouTube by "someguy076" during that slump in coverage [ note: lyrics contain profanity, no gore in visuals ]. We took it as encouragement to continue trying to capture attention for the men and women who sacrifice so much for our country.





One of the marines commemorated is Captain Brian S. Letendre. Brian fell two years ago today (5/3/06) in Ramadi.

The three other "fallen brothers" someguy asks us to remember in his video are Lcpl. Kurt Dechen, Lcpl. Chris Cosgrove, and Cpl. Jordan Pierson.

God bless the fallen and their families, and God bless you, someguy.

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UPDATE: Fort Minor's "Where'd You Go" unblocked. Please join the Portal in lobbying the band and their publishers to allow its use in someguy076's memorial at YouTube: his location audio and the video combines brilliantly with a song that was soundtrack to a singular time.