Sgt. Matthew J. DeYoung of the United States Marine Corps, hometown, Talent Oregon, is coming home. Last Friday he died in combat in Afghanistan with the comrades he loved.
According to Medford's Mail Tribune:
Sgt. DeYoung, 26, of the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., died Friday in the arms of his best friend, Sgt. Lee Harris of Medford, after DeYoung stepped on an IED during combat in Afghanistan.
He had just returned to his buddies after having receiving a concussion from another IED and spending two weeks in the hospital. While in the hospital he couldn't wait to get back to his comrades in arms. This was his third deployment. The first two were:
Iraq: February to August 2006;
Iraq: August 2007 to March 2008.
He graduated from Phoenix High in 2005 and was a championship wrestler.
A memorial will be held Saturday at noon at the old South Medford Gymnasium and burial will take place Saturday at 3:pm at the Eagle Point National Cemetery.
REQUIEM
by: Robert Louis Stevenson
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
**************
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(Click on the title for a link to the Medford Mail Tribune story)
