Fallen soldiers remembered online
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Mail carrier Tim Rivera hosts a Web site dedicated to soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Kim Smith still cries when she reads the letter she posted on the Internet for her 19-year-old son, who was killed in June by a grenade while on guard duty in Baghdad.
"I miss you so very much and my heart is heavy knowing that you've left this world so young," read Smith, of San Antonio, Texas. "Not a single day or night goes by without me thinking of you. Go with God, Robby, you're one of His soldiers now."
Smith posted the letter to Pvt. Robert Lewis Frantz through www.fallenheroesmemorial.com, a Web site created by a mail carrier from Powder Springs, Georgia, that is devoted to the memories of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I was amazed there was a place you could go -- first I would go there every day and look at what people had wrote -- some of my family started leaving messages," Smith said. "So many times when you have a loss ... there is nowhere to go."
The site gets up to 1,300 hits a day and preserves hundreds of comments for soldiers killed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
There are several Web sites dedicated to fallen U.S. soldiers, but family members of slain soldiers say Tim Rivera's Web site allows them to easily remember their loved ones and is well maintained.
Besides the families of the fallen, the Web site's visitors include fellow soldiers and strangers with no ties to the military who simply want to express their gratitude.
"I send my deepest and sincere sympathy to all that have fallen since the start and current operations in Iraq," wrote Staff Sgt. Eric Figueroa of the 3rd Infantry Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia, who served in both Iraqi Freedom and in the 1991 Gulf War. "I do care about all the lives that were lost and will never forget them and will make sure people around my area will not forget them as well."
Rivera started the site in March after he learned his brother, Dan, was sent to Iraq by the Air Force.
"That's when I first heard the news of the first soldiers who died," Rivera said. "I immediately thought about my brother over there -- I thought, 'What would I do if my brother were to die."'
Word of mouth spreads news of Web site
Creating Web sites is a hobby for the 23-year-old. He updates information on slain soldiers from the Department of Defense's Web site. News of the Rivera's site spread mainly by word of mouth, between military families and friends of soldiers lost overseas.
Melissa Givens of Fountain, Colorado, found Rivera's Web site a few weeks after her husband was killed in Iraq on May 1. Pfc. Jesse Givens drowned when the tank he was driving fell into a canal.
On the site, Melissa Givens saw messages left from her husband's longtime friends who were trying to get in touch with her family. Then she started posting her own messages as a virtual scrapbook for her children, 6-year-old Dakota and 7-month old Carson, who was born May 29, weeks after Jesse's death.
Jesse's mother posted her son's favorite song. Others posted poems and words of encouragement. Jesse's last letter also appears as he wrote it.
"I'm afraid in time Dakota's going to forget and Carson's never going to know him," Melissa Givens said. "It makes me feel better to see people honor the person I loved and lost. He was always my hero. And it makes me feel really good. I think Tim's wonderful for doing it."
Rivera says he receives messages of support from family members and friends who frequently visit the site. He hopes it will be an enduring memorial.
"I plan to have it up as long as possible -- I don't plan on taking it down anytime," Rivera said. "It will always be there for family and friends, they will always be able to come to it and read messages."
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