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I'm going to break from the normal third person writing and tell you all a story about someone very dear to me. His name is Luke B. Holler. Luke was killed in Iraq in November of 2006, shortly before the Marine Corps birthday. I still visit my brother at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetary to this very day.I'm sure many of you know this type of guy. As rare as they are, for some reason, one of them seems to be placed in all of our lives on purpose. Luke was the kind of man who could never stop smiling. No matter what it is we were doing from our time in the delayed entry program for the United States Marine Corps to our training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Luke always had a smile on his face. I never could understand why. Try as I might to this very day I still don't know how he did it.
We would be in a sand pit or on a run and there Luke would be smiling. Sometimes even laughing his ass off despite the misery we'd be enduring. He couldn't be happier to be a Marine. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, Luke had a smile that refused to end.Every day I am inspired by Luke's example in life. I don't always succeed and sometimes I flat out fail, and I feel the twinge of regret, thinking I've let my brother down. Deep down though, I know, like always he'd have a smile on his face and he'd pick me up and say that everything was ok, and to just keep moving forward, to keep growing. I wish all of you could have known Luke, even in his death he has remained a constant reminder that life with all of its ups and downs is a joy. I hope one day I'm known for having a smile that refused to end, just like my brother Luke.
