Rest in Peace Lance Corporal Jeremy Kane

Jeremy Kane lived one town away from me. I never met him but I feel like I knew him. Jeremy Kane is no longer with us but he is one of my heroes:

At 13, Jeremy Kane was deeply affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. The event shaped his life, and led him to a fateful choice.

"He knew he had to do something for his country, and that was join the military," said his mother, Melinda, of Cherry Hill. "He wanted to serve."

To drive home the point, Kane joined the Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 2006, during his freshman year at Rutgers University and served as a reservist.

On Saturday, three months into his deployment in Afghanistan, the 22-year-old lance corporal was killed when a suicide bomber attacked his unit in Helmand Province.

This hits home because my own son is 13. What if 9/11 had occurred today and he had to experience the tension, horror and disbelief we all did that day? Jeremy Kane was affected and that affectation lasted to the point where he joined the Marines. He didn't have to, he wanted to because he thought it was the right thing to do for his country. I did the same and can understand what he felt.

Mr. Kane's father was a pathologist and he went to a good high school and college. He could've have let someone else join and could have rationalized it a million different ways. He chose not to let someone else fight but to do it himself.

I leave you with the words of his mother:

"I want people to know that this was someone from Cherry Hill," she said. "He had options, and this was his choice.

And thank God for people like him. Yes, he's one of thousands who have pay the ultimate price to defend our freedom and they are all heroes. Mr. Kane knew the risks and enlisted anyway because he's a true American who knew what this nation is about and it's about people like him defending people who don't.

Thank you Lance Corporal Kane and Semper Fi.