I really empathize with this guy for losing his son, I really do. However, his son enlisted in the Marine Corps and apparently went Infantry. His son died following orders after engaging in combat. Whether or not it was his only son is irrelevant to the fact that his only son chose to enlist in the military, which means putting himself in harms way when given the order to. I heard plenty of people on LJ and other media that were complaining about the possibility of their sons, daughters, various relations, etc might get killed because they signed up for the military. "He only signed up so he could afford college, so why should he have to fight?" was my personal favorite. Is the death of his only son a sad event? Yes. We know he wasn't drafted so we can safely say that he enlisted himself voluntarily. This isn't a "he got what he deserved" rant by any means, but he did have to know the possibility of military service when signing up in the military.