A hardheaded outdoorsman with "a helluva good sense of humor," Kurt E. Krout of Milford Township, Bucks County joined the Marine Corps in the late 1970s when he was 17. After earning his GED, he became a drill sergeant and a weapons specialist who served in the Philippines during the tumultuous waning years of the Marcos regime. Discharged in the late 1980s, he worked a variety of jobs, got married and had four children. Two years after a divorce, he rejoined the military, as a National Guardsman, in 1995. "He didn't say what he liked so much about it, but you know, I just can't imagine him without it," says fiancee Barbara Kissel. "It was just Kurt."

In 2000, he began working at the Quakertown Wal-Mart, where, according to store manager "Raging" Robin Ripple (Kurt gave her the nickname for her volcanic temper), he became food department manager and was scheduled to enter managerial training school. Before that could happen, he was deployed to Iraq.

Kissel recalls him having mixed feelings, but "he felt he needed to go, it was his job. He was just very worried about leaving me and his children." By that fall, Kurt was patrolling the streets of Beiji, where earlier Philadelphia artilleryman Nicholas Zangara had lost his life ["Was It Worth It?" Oct. 13, 2005]. Krout and Kissel planned to get married, though they never set a date. Now, it shall never come to pass. On Aug. 6, while convoying near the town of Balad, his humvee struck an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), killing him and Philadelphia Guardsman Sgt. Brahim Jeffcoat ["Was It Worth It?" Oct. 20, 2005].

Speaking on behalf of Krout's Quakertown Wal-Mart co-workers, Ripple explains, "In our eyes, he's nothing but a big hero. What greater honor than to die for the country you loved?"

Says Kissel, "Was it worth it? I don't know how to answer it. I've thought about it and thought about it, but I just don't know how to answer. I feel lost, you know?"

Hundreds attended Krout's funeral in Arlington National Cemetery, which was presided over by Gov. Ed Rendell. As the American flag draped over his coffin was folded, an Army chaplain declared, "In life he honored the flag. In death, the flag will honor him."