They are the troops that nobody wants to see, car­ry­ing a mes­sage that no mil­i­tary fam­ily ever wants to hear.

It begins with a knock at the door.

Final Salute is a dou­ble Pulitzer Prize win­ning arti­cle (writ­ing and pho­tog­ra­phy) from The Rocky Moun­tain News pro­fil­ing the work of Major Steve Beck — a US Marine respon­si­ble for noti­fy­ing fam­ily mem­bers of a Marine’s death. As the Pulitzer Award cited, the arti­cle is a “haunt­ing, behind-the-scenes look”.

It’s long; but it’s wor­thy of every moment of your time no mat­ter what your stance on the numer­ous armed con­flicts cur­rently under way. It’s a dif­fi­cult read that will put a lump in your throat.

(Alter­na­tive link)