Aug. 3--Luke Air Force Base lies outside Phoenix. Its planes cross Arizona's magnificent sunburnt skies. A true story circulating on the Internet tells of a local resident who wrote a snarky letter to his paper complaining about the noise from an Air Force fly-by. He said he wanted to "thank" the people responsible for the thunder that apparently marred his day.

The response proved swift -- and sobering. Officers wrote to explain that the four planes flying in formation were participating in a ceremony for a comrade who fell in Iraq. Capt. Jeremy Fresques, who had been station at Luke, was killed on Memorial Day. The Arizona service honored an American hero. Fresques' ...