A college senior from Michigan will soon spend another winter break without his father, a staff sergeant whose life was taken in a mortar attack in Baqubah, Iraq, on Christmas Day 2003.
Two teen brothers in California will take a moment this holiday season to remember their Marine-pilot stepfather who was killed in an air crash in Pakistan; the oldest boy was only 12 when he tearfully described their late parent as "a hero, especially to me" at the funeral five years ago.
Two students at the University of Illinois, a brother and sister, are about to complete their college degrees and lau