Fade to blue

I learned today that an Air Force colonel I worked with in Turkey from 2000-2001, recently retired and working as a logistics contractor in Iraq, was killed earlier this month during an insurgent attack.
I was a lowly Captain, literally in the corner of the room during Wing Staff meetings, while I watched the Wing Commander sit with his Big Three -- Ops, Support, and Logistic Group Commanders -- discussing the latest issues with Operation Northern Watch or the local terrorist threat or the next exercise. We may have exchanged a few words in passing, though our professional paths were in different fields. But I admired him, recollected on him from time to time, and often looked for him on af.mil to see if he'd made General.
He is the first, after all the thousands and thousands to die in this war, that I knew. I can picture his wife; remember his kids from the on-base high school. And this sort of revelation happens all over the country, every week. To think thousands were dying each day during WWII...
I found a website the family has put together and learned that the Colonel will be buried at Arlington Cemetery a few days before my next deployment. I'm going to try like hell to get there.