Remember the kid being handed the flag from his dad's coffin?

[Subdeacon Joe]

Boy from iconic wartime photo pays it forward at Christmas

 

It's one of the most powerful pictures from the Iraq war: an

8-year-old, his lip trembling, is handed a folded flag at his father's

funeral.

The iconic image inspired a family friend - someone the

young Christian Golczynski had never met - to send him a present and,

later, to launch a foundation that helps hundreds of kids just like him.

Every year, A Soldier’s Child sends children of fallen soldiers gifts on

their birthday. Christian's father, Marine Staff Sgt. Marcus Golczynski,

was killed in Iraq in 2007, so Christian was the first recipient. Now,

there are 1,200 in 46 states.

 

And six years after that famous photo was taken, Christian is doing

his part to carry out the mission of A Soldier's Child and make the

holidays easier for other military children.

Christian is 15 now, a

sophomore in high school and a goalie on his lacrosse team. He and his

mother, Heather, are “adopting” other military families, picking out

presents so they don't feel forgotten during this holiday season.

"I

really just hope that they feel like I did the first year when I got

it," Christian said. "Just really nice inside...the thought of knowing

that someone else is thinking about you over the holidays."

In

2010, the Golczynskis adopted Connor and Cooper Bunting, ages 6 and 4,

whose father, Army Capt. Brian “Bubba” Bunting was killed in Afghanistan

just days before their mother, Nicki, learned she was pregnant with the

younger boy.

"It was really, really special," Nicki Bunting said of the care

package, which included child-sized lacrosse sticks and child-sized

footballs, representing her husband's favorite sports. "It was just so

neat to just see my kids light up and get this package full of stuff.

Daryl

Mackin, the founder of "A Soldier's Child" on the image of a young boy

that moved so many people and what is being done for the children of

military families.

"When people do nice things for my

kids, it just means the world to me. Because to see them happy is what

keeps me going," she said.

This year, the Golczynskis gave gifts

to three families: the daughter of a soldier killed in 2008; the sons of

a soldier who is currently deployed; and the family of a Marine who

took his own life earlier this year, leaving behind a 10-year-old

daughter and a one-and-a-half-year-old son with a brain tumor.

Christian

sold some of his lacrosse gear to help raise money for the last family.

And he asked Daryl Mackin to send him a gift card this year, so that he

could pass it on to them as well.

"Christian seems like such a

remarkable, remarkable teenager," said Bunting, whose sons still play

with the lacrosse sticks Christian picked for them. "To want to give to

other families like that is so special because that's not something that

a lot of other teenagers are thinking about these days."

Even though seven years have passed, Christian acutely feels the absence of his father, Marc.

"A lot of times during lacrosse games I can look over and see everyone

else's dad and my mom just like next to them," the Crofton, Md.,

high-school athlete said. "So it's always a reminder there that I don't

have him."

Heather Golczynski said because of the many kindnesses they received, she and Christian have always wanted to "pay it forward."

And Christian believes his dad would be proud of the young man who showed

so much strength in a photo that touched so many people in 2006.

"Yeah," he said. "He'd be smiling."

 

 

 

A squared away young man.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Damn monitor. Gets all foggy.

 

Hard to see.

 

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Damn monitor. Gets all foggy.

 

Hard to see.

 

 

Yours too? A lot of that going around.

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

 

GG ~