Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/marine-author-reflect-on-honoring-fallen-comrades Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Author Jim Sheeler and U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Steve Beck talk about Sheeler's book, "Final Salute," which chronicles the Marines who notify families about the death of their loved ones during war and provide support as families cope with their loss. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: It's an image frequently used in our popular culture. An American family getting the news that a son, husband, father, and now daughter, has been killed while serving in the Armed Forces.But the man at the door in dress uniform does much more than simply bring the terrible news. The service people who do that delicate work and the bond they forge with bereaved families is the subject of a new book, "Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives."Author Jim Sheeler won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in the Rocky Mountain News on the war dead of Colorado and the work of then-casualty assistance officer Lieutenant Colonel Steve Beck, and they both join me now.Jim Sheeler, how did you get hooked on this story in the first place?JIM SHEELER, Author, "Final Salute": I was actually — while covering the first casualty from Colorado, I started noticing things that I think a lot of people didn't see behind the scenes that the Marines were doing, everything from watching over the family's house while they were at the visitation to make sure nobody robbed it, to standing guard the entire time that the body was laying in visitation or accessible to the public. The Marines were everywhere.And I kind of saw another side of them that I hadn't seen before. When you see them folding their friend's flag for the last time, and you see those eyes tear up, it's not that blank stare that you see from the recruiting poster, and I decided that I wanted to see what was behind those eyes.