The first Colorado casualty of the war in Iraq, Thomas Slocum “was one of those push-the-edge type kids,” as his mother put it.
“He knew he had rules, but he liked to live right on the edge of what the rules were.
“Sometimes, I think he figured out what the punishment would be if he stepped over the line, and if it was a punishment he thought he could handle, he probably would step over a little more often than I would like.
“(One day) he came up to me and asked me if he could go talk to a recruiter. I said, ‘Is this something you want to do?’ He said, ‘Yes.’
” ‘OK,’ I said, ‘What recruiter?’ And he says, ‘Marines.’
“And I said, ‘Marines? Not the Air Force?’
Because the Marines are always in the front.
I think that’s what attracted him, is that they’re always in the action. They’re not in the background. I guess he was destined to
be a Marine.”
– Terry Cooper, mom
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Thomas Slocum wears a Marine Corps T-shirt in his junior class high school photo, above.
