Corporal Steven R. Koch

TigerBlog was stopped at a red light on Route 1 yesterday when he noticed the little message on the license plate holder of the car in front of him.

Usually, it'll say something like the name of a college or a car dealer or something like that. This one didn't seem much different, as it said "KIA," which TB originally took to mean the name of the South Korean car company.

As TB read across, though, he saw it actually said "KIA in Afghanistan," with the name of Corporal Steven R. Koch. And the date: March 3, 2008.

TigerBlog had never heard of Corporal Steven R. Koch before yesterday. When the light turned green, the car in front went straight and TB got off to make the jughandle across Route 1, and he never got a chance to see who was driving or figure out what their connection was to Corporal Koch.

Something, though, made TB remember the name and the date.

Maybe it's because the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted so long and yet in many ways didn't really touch the overwhelming majority of Americans, including TB, who knows only a handful of people who served and no one who was killed or wounded.

After awhile, the average citizen became numb to the casualty reports and just went about their lives.

TB was no different.

The day Corporal Koch was killed was a Monday. Two days earlier, Princeton had been thumped by Johns Hopkins in men's lacrosse at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic in Baltimore, and five days later, the Tigers would be hosting Virginia on Powers Field at Princeton Stadium.

If there was a news report about Koch's death, TB probably missed it.

It's been more than four years now since that day, and an entire generation of Princeton athletes has come and gone. Like TB, the focus of those athletes has been on their lives, their futures, what they need to accomplish today, while looking toward tomorrow.

That's what they're supposed to do. That's what TB is supposed to do.

And Corporal Koch?
He was 23 when he died. He left his parents, a brother, a sister, a wife and a 15-month-old daughter named Zoe.

He attended East Brunswick High School, which is about 20 minutes or so from Princeton, and like many he was drawn to the military by the 9/11 attacks.

TigerBlog learned all this with a simple search of Cpl. Steven R. Koch.

He looks like he was one tough guy, as you might expect from someone who volunteered and served in the 82nd Airborne. His headstone says he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

 On one site, TB saw this quote from Koch: "I would bleed on the flag to keep the stripes red."

And he did. 

Once the summer break is over, it'll be time for another academic year, more Princeton athletic events that will be important to those who coach them, compete in them, watch them, chronicle them.

And that's okay. That's a large part of what those who serve are protecting.

It's just that so many of them never came back. Steven R. Koch is one them.

TB couldn't get his name off his mind yesterday, after a simple stop at a traffic light on Route 1, the name of a stranger with whom TB has no connection.

As he learned about him, he wondered what his plans were for his life, what he'd be doing today if he'd come back from Afghanistan, wondered what happened to his wife and Zoe, wondered how his parents were doing, wondered, for that matter, who was driving the car.

He's not even sure what the point of writing about him is, other than to that he wants to let Koch's family know that he isn't forgotten.

And that he won't be.

At least not by TB.