Fantastic piece on a heartbreaking tale

In the early- to mid-1990s, Michelle Thresher was an incredibly talented young sportswriter at the University of Florida.

She eventually left the biz, went to grad school and then law school, got married to a Marine officer named David Taylor and had a son. Not long after her son's birth, Maj. David Taylor was killed by an IED in Iraq.

St. Pete's John Romano, for whom Michelle strung when we were in college, delivered an incredible, 6-page special section this past Sunday on their story.

Though Michelle left sportswriting 10 or so years ago, I still feel as though she was part of the fraternity. Hopefully, it's OK to post this here.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/27/Features/A_story_for_Jake.shtml

 

I got about 12 graphs in and started bawling. These stories always get to me.

 

That might be the best story I've read about the war in Iraq so far. Just a compelling piece. It didn't even faze me how long it was.

 

Great work.

The grays of the war, the nuances of love, the commitment to ideals -- all there, with smiles and tears, without melodrama -- and a father saved for a son who never knew him.

Someday Jake will thank John Romano.

Newspapers are dying? Not as long as they have people who can do this.

 

This, my friends, is good journalism, and a great example of how we can go outside of our comfort zone and tackle a difficult subject. John is an excellent sports columnist, but this proves that he is an excellent all-around writer and I think he did all of us proud with this piece.

 

That was marvelous and heart breaking.
Think of the thousands of similar stories there are in this country because of an ill-conceived war. Combat deaths have never been more tragic than the ones created by the selfish bastards in this administration. I hope they all fry in hell.

 

I am so damn sick of this war and what it's doing to people—I really can't stand it. Facts are facts: This was the biggest military blunder in US history, and the thousands upon thousands of ruined lives are directly—and forever—linked to this administration. I wouldn't care if this was JFK, Reagan, Clinton, whoever—we're talking about a presidential decision that has 0 redeeming qualities. I'm sick over it.

Great article. God bless that family.

 

what a great piece of story telling and very moving.

hopefully this thread wont sink into a political pissing match, save it for another thread.

Romano needs to be recognized for his work and Michelle Taylor needs to be acknowledged for her strength and courage.

 

Thanks for posting that. Heartbreaking story.

 

Big_Space, at this point I would argue it's not a political pissing match to say the results of this war are, with minute exception, tragic. This story only illustrates such. I am a registered Republican who voted for Bush the first time, and not a day goes by that I don't regret it.

 

There's a whole side of the board for this sort of thing. This side isn't it.

It's good practice for the sort of professionalism you're supposed to be showing in your day job.

Though many of you can't or won't