Token of gratitude for patriotism. (The Goodness of America).(Brief Article)

Robert Setaro, 29, of Worcester, Massachusetts, enlisted in the Air Force in 1999. Two years earlier, his younger brother, Ryan, had enlisted, and five years before that another brother, Richard, had been killed when his Air Force helicopter crashed during a night training mission in South Korea.

Columnist Dianne Williamson, writing in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for February 5th, described how Robert Setaro, currently stationed in Saudi Arabia, recently returned home for two days to attend his father-in-law's funeral. While there, he heard about a parcel of land for sale in the area of Worcester where he had grown up, behind a school he had attended as a youngster. Recently married, and with his tour of duty scheduled to end in three years, he became interested in purchasing the lot. He hired a lawyer and arranged to give his father power of attorney, then retained EcoTec Inc., a Worcester environmental consulting firm, to conduct a wetlands survey on the property. Unfortunately, the survey revealed that the land was too wet for what Airman Setaro had in mind.

Shortly thereafter, Robert's dad, Richard Setaro Sr., visited EcoTec. During a conversation with president Paul J. McManus and environmental scientist Scott Jordan, who had conducted the tests, he mentioned (as related by columnist Williamson) "that the land was to have been bought by his son who is stationed in Saudi Arabia. The men got to talking, and Mr. Setaro noted that he had lost a son in Korea and that his youngest boy was stationed in Oman as part of Operation Enduring Freedom."

A few days later, Mr. Setaro and his wife, Margaret, received a letter from ...