SaluteSaturday

Army Pfc. Karina S. Lau
KIA: November 02, 2003
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Assigned to the 16th Signal Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas

Pfc. Karina Lau sang and played clarinet and saxophone, and won awards for music and math. She dreamed of returning to school after her military service and someday setting up her own music shop. "I prayed for her every day telling her to be careful," said her mother, Ruth Lau, of Livingston, Calif. "She said she was safe. We never expected that anything would happen to her." Lau, 20, was one of 16 soldiers killed in the Nov. 2 downing of a helicopter carrying troops home on leave. Lau attended the University of Pacific on a music scholarship before joining the Army in January 2002. She received training as a radio operator at Fort Hood during boot camp before she was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of the war. Just a few hours before boarding the helicopter, Lau sent an e-mail to her half-sister, Martha Rivera. "Don't worry," it read. "I'll be careful."

Source:
http://militarytimes.com/valor/army-pfc-karina-s-lau/256857/

A bend in the road is not the end of the road...
Unless you fail to make the turn.

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/06/496826293/on-the-appalachian-trail-combat-veterans-learn-to-let-things-go

On The Appalachian Trail, Combat Veterans Learn To Let Things Go