Tyler MacKenzie was 6 when he declared his intention to join the Army and drive a tank. By his sophomore year in high school, when he was 6-foot-2, his mother advised him to reconsider, wondering aloud whether his lanky frame would fit inside such a cramped space.
“We miss him an awful lot. We knew the price he might have to give for this, and he was willing to do it.
“In fact, before he left for basic training, him and I had a talk. He told me, he said, ‘If anything happens to me, Mom, it’s OK to grieve for a little while, but then you’ve got to go on with your life.’
“Parents worry about how they’re going to be raising their kids, and are they doing a good job. Sometimes, now, I sit there, and I think, ‘I hope I was a good parent.’
“But then I think of all the people who’ve said the things they have about him. Must have done something right, that he grew up to be a very great person. The kind of person everyone needs.”
– Julie MacKenzie, mother
