PORTLAND

I hadn't been for many, many years, since 1996 when the kids and I did our west coast triangle tour during spring break and saw on the news from a Motel 6 in Coeur d'Alene that the Unibomber had been arrested just a few short miles from our town, Helena, which was now filled with satellite wielding trucks transmitting the global news.  My oldest daughter ran into David Bloom, who was camped out in our town for the mayhem, in the check out lane at our local Hastings.

It would be many years later during his assignment abroad embedded with US troops in Iraq in 2003 when he would be stricken suddenly by an embolism and die at a young 40.  I clearly remember worrying about him when seeing his frequent war front reports on NBC nightly news thinking to myself, bring him home and get him out of there.  When Tom Brokaw announced at the top of the broadcast that night saying one of our own has died, I knew instinctively it was David Bloom and was greatly saddened.