Fwd: Illinois Town Struggles With Deaths of High School Pals

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Illinois Town Struggles With Deaths of High School Pal
Soldiers Killed in Iraq Within Two Days of One Another

USATODAY.com
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

CREVE COEUR, Ill. (Oct. 13) — Kristofer Walker and George Obourn Jr., both 20, were almost inseparable.

As high school students, their friendship revolved around marching band, playing video games together and eating at Monical's Pizza, up the street from East Peoria High School.

Together they acted on their dream of joining the Army as Cavalry Scouts, wanting to do their part after Sept. 11. Out of school they entered a "buddy" system that would keep them together or a year through basic training. In Iraq they served in the same squadron.

Their lives together ended on Oct. 2, when Walker was killed after his Humvee hit a roadside bomb in Taji, near Baghdad. Two days later, Obourn followed his friend, killed while clearing a building of insurgents in the same town...

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