You have to love stories like this one -- love, generousity, and patriotism all rolled together.

A Marine who's planning to marry a Texan got an early Christmas present: A fellow shopper picked up the tab for a $3,000 diamond engagement ring after the two struck up a conversation in a jewelry store.

The 54-year-old Dallas woman who paid for the 1-carat, princess cut diamond ring wants to remain anonymous, Helzberg Diamonds spokeswoman Stacey McBride told The Associated Press on Friday.

The woman's father was in the military, her brother was a Marine who died in Vietnam and her nephew just got back from Iraq, McBride said.

Marine James Lynaugh, 28, of Patuxent River, Md., was shopping Thursday at the Helzberg Diamonds store at a mall in Tyler.

Lynaugh and the anonymous shopper discussed their mutual military connections. Lynaugh opened a store credit account to buy the ring, then left with it.

After the other shopper paid for her items, she inquired whether Lynaugh's credit charge could be reversed. She didn't even ask about the cost of the ring, McBride said.

"So we were able to reverse that charge, and she paid in full with a check," McBride said.

A representative of the North Kansas City., Mo, company later contacted Lynaugh with the good news.

"He did say that he broke the news to his fiancee" that someone else paid for the ring, McBride said.

Lynaugh's fiancee is from Athens, about 40 miles southwest of Tyler in East Texas. The Marine also has family in Huntsville.

He did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press on Friday afternoon.

And the greatest of these is love.

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Some stories (scroll down) stand without further comment.

The remains of a U.S. sailor missing for 63 years since his aircraft crashed on a northern Pacific island in World War II have been identified and returned home for burial, the Pentagon said.

Seaman 2nd Class Dee Hall of Syra, Okla., will be buried today with military honors at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio.

Hall was one of seven crewmen aboard a U.S. Navy PBY-5 Catalina that took off from Kodiak Island, Alaska, on June 14, 1942, to attack targets on Japanese-held Kiska Island. The aircraft encountered bad weather and heavy anti-aircraft fire near the target and crashed with all crewmen on board.

In August 1943, U.S. forces recaptured Kiska. Both the crash and burial sites were found and excavated in 2003. Military forensic experts identified Hall and the other missing crewmen, the Pentagon said.

A grateful nation humbly thanks you for your service and your sacrifice.

Rest in peace.

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Two years ago, Matt Maupin was a typical American young man.

He worked at Sam's Club.

He was attending college, majoring in nutritional science.

He worked out at Powerhouse Gym.

He had a dog named Fibi.

He drove a Mustang.

And in February, 2004, he was deployed to Iraq with the 724th Transportation Company.

Six weeks later, on April 9, 2004, he was guarding a civilian convoy that was ambushed by so-called insurgents -- terrorists, to call them by their proper name -- and was captured. He is the only American to have been captured in Iraq.

The Pittsburgh Times-Review has a great piece about the Maupin family and their experiences over the last year-and-a-half. I encourage you to read it.

I also encourage you to copy my little PhotoShop project above and put it on your site.

For we must never forget Matt Maupin, a typical American young man, who fell into the hands of the enemy while fighting for this country and the freedom of the Iraqi people.

And we must make sure that Sgt. Matt Maupin returns home with honor -- an American hero.

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Howard Dean, whose medical deferment confined him to the ski slopes during Vietnam, has announced that the Democrats are coalescing around a “Cut-And-Run NOW!” policy in Iraq, because, after all, Iraq is just like Vietnam.

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Or was it because Congressional Democrats didnÂ’t have the will to allow the President at the time to implement the strategies necessary to win the war?

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You have to ask the question, given the position taken by Murtha, Pelosi, and other opponents of the war in Iraq.

The war against terrorism, especially in Iraq, has caused many Americans to ask if the cost is worth it. They watch television and read the papers about the casualties and terrorist suicide attacks. The media report daily the number of soldiers killed in Iraq but rarely report the positive events.

What if these same Americans had been around in 1944 and 1945? In 1944, the Marines stormed Iwo Jima in the Pacific. In about five weeks, they had more than 6,000 Marines killed and more than 19,000 wounded. Shortly following that battle, U.S. forces attacked the island of Okinawa, where more than 12,000 military personnel died.

It was at Okinawa that the Japanese unleashed the kamikaze -- suicide attackers who sank or damaged numerous ships. More than 6,000 sailors died in those aerial attacks. I am sure the nation was concerned then, too, about how to deal with people who were intent on dying as long as they took many of their enemy with them.

Scenes of the D-Day landings and the Battle of the Bulge in "Saving Private Ryan" depict the gruesome aspects of combat in 1944-45 probably better than any other film. Our troops soldiered on because they accepted the overwhelming necessity for victory in a just cause.

After all, if 2100 deaths in nearly three years provokes such an outcry from our "Peace At Any Price" friends on the Left, how would they have reacted to Iwo Jima, Okniawa, or Normandy? And would they have demanded an exit strategy and a set withdrawal date had it been necessary to invade the Japanese home islands?

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Bresident Bush has made it his practice to meet with family members of sevice personnel killed in Iraq when possible. He has even met with Cindy Sheehan -- though she seems tohave forgotten her words of praise for the President at the time.

Here is an account of one such meeting.

For about 20 minutes Tuesday, the MacKenzie family met privately with President Bush as he offered sympathy and listened to stories about Pfc. Tyler MacKenzie, a 20-year-old solider killed in Iraq earlier this month by a roadside bomb.

"We cried, and I had to pull out some Kleenex and give it to everyone else," Tyler's grandmother Mary MacKenzie said.

"I had to give some to the president, too, because he didn't have any."

The meeting was arranged through the office of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave. Tyler MacKenzie, who graduated from Greeley West High, was the first Weld County resident killed in the war.

Both David and Julie MacKenzie, along with grandparents Emmett and Mary MacKenzie, saw Bush speak at the Brown Palace Hotel before the Secret Service moved them to a quiet room to meet with the president.

Emmett MacKenzie, a 75-year-old Korean War veteran, said Bush reassured them that there would be no pullout of troops until Iraqis could provide their own security.

"He said we wouldn't quit, and we told him we didn't want to quit until the job was done," Emmett MacKenzie said.

"We want to continue, and we're behind him 100 percent."

Another family for pursuit of the only valid exit strategy -- VICTORY.

Why is it that such families do not get the sort of coverage and respect that one America-hating mama gets?

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