My Prayers for a Special Marine

I had this friend I met in my 5th year of college. He was part of the College Republicans and lived with a couple of my friends who held political office. Those 3 guys really made my last year of college, when most of my friends had already graduated, truly great. We all went to Washington DC, toured the museums, monuments, and even got pulled over at the Pentagon. We went shooting and blew up pictures of Osama Bin Laden and my best friend and I went skinny-dipping with them our last night in Ohio. I ended up having a crush on one of the guys and we started hanging out right after I broke up with my BF of 8 months. I remember this one time we were at the bar drinking and my ex came in after a pub crawl and starts yelling at me. His eyes got really big, he stood up, got in his face and let him know that you do not talk to a lady like that and almost fought him. He was taking classes, working for the Ohio Republican Party and in the Marine Reserves. He is one of the funniest guys I have ever met. I was, and still am, a sucker for a man in uniform, especially the blue dress Marines outfit with the sword. My sister, Ranting Republican, is more partial to the Air Force jumpers.

We only started talking about a month before I moved back home to Illinois so nothing really materialized. He was the last person I said goodbye to before I left town and I've seen him only once since then. We kept in touch every 6 months or so and then lost touch for a while. He was basically the guy in charge for voter turnout in Ohio when he worked for the Bush Cheney 2004 campaign. Thank god he did a great job and we won the state!

Anyways, that was just some background because I found out not too long ago that he was deployed to Iraq. Its funny how knowing someone who is over there humanizes it for you. Democrats say to me sometimes "you'd feel differently about the was if someone you cared about was over there in harms way." You know what, I don't feel differently and I'm sure he is proud to be there and believes in our noble cause.

A couple weeks ago 6 Marines were killed from his Ohio Batallion, and last week, another 14. For a few days they didn't release the names but when they showed each fallen soldier's name and picture on the news, I held my breath, letting it out little by little as each strange face passed by. As far as I know, he was NOT one of the brave men killed. I also felt very selfish because each of those soldiers was someone's husband/son/brother/cousin/friend, etc. I'm sure these boys were his friends. I decided I want to send a care package but am having a hell of a time finding out where to send it to. I contacted his 2 old roomates from college and am awaiting their responses. Any advice?

So if any of you have a spare second, or could close your eyes right now and just say a tiny prayer for "Teacher Tori's Marine friend", that would be great. He's a great person and while I haven't seen him in a good while, I'm sure not much has changed. Thank you.