On Memorial Day, I always think of Army Maj. Marie Rossi. I think of her throughout the year but more so this time of year. When we, the civilian class, are asked to remember and honor those who made the supreme sacrifice, Marie's name is the first to come to my mind. This is the story of how she became the face of my Memorial Day.

I was a young editor working a Sunday morning in an empty newsroom of the New York Post in Lower Manhattan. The first Gulf War, Desert Storm, had just ended. The city desk phone rang. It was the Washington bureau. "We have a KIA (killed in action) from our area," the bureau chief said. She went on with the few sparse details that she had; a name, her hometown but not an exact address. She's Marie Rossi from Oradell in New Jersey. The bureau chief asked me to confirm that I had the information correctly.