The Review

Issue date: 10/23/07 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: Ronald G. William, Jr. Foundation

As the death tolls were mounting daily in Iraq, Rebecca Pepin felt many fallen soldiers were not getting the respect they deserved.

Pepin, a news anchor for Fox Tri-Cities in Bristol, Va., decided to do something about it.

She recruited writers from across the country and put together a book highlighting 52 service members - one from each state, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico - who were killed in Iraq. The book is titled "Faces of Freedom: Profiles of America's Fallen Heroes."

Pepin says the idea came from a lack of attention being paid to the soldiers who died.

"We never did enough in terms of coverage," Pepin says. "All we had were these 30-second blurbs. I wanted to do something a little more."

Pepin, a native Canadian who became an American citizen on Oct. 27, 2006, says her new American citizenship played a role in her initial choice to pursue the book.

"As someone coming in, I didn't think I should just be an apathetic citizen," she says. "I wanted to be someone who contributes. I do support the troops, and I wanted to show that."

At the outset of the project, Pepin realized she could not write all of the stories herself, so she recruited 48 writers and either assigned them a fallen soldier to write about or asked if they had someone in mind. She says many of the writers already knew deceased service members to cover.

Pepin says the profiles vary from person to person and don't follow a formulaic pattern.

"They are actually very personal vignettes," she says. "Some tell about Iraq, some tell about their personality, others about their upbringing."

Delaware's representative in the book, Cpl. Stephen McGowan, was a 26-year-old Newark citizen who died in a roadside explosion in Ramadi, Iraq, on March 4, 2005. He was a combat medic with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Iraq after joining the Army in 2002.

Bobbie McGowan, Stephen's mother, says prior to joining the military, Stephen attended the university and Wilmington College. He played rugby at the university and was always active, whether through lifeguarding, hiking, skydiving or a variety of other sports.

Bobbie, who teaches at the Charter School of Wilmington, says the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were the key factor in Stephen's decision to join the military.

"He loved this country very much and felt strongly about it," Bobbie says. "9/11 just solidified his decision."

Continued...

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