Hi everyone.  My name is John J. Dietz of Atlanta Ga and I am a former Sgt in the USMC.  I am writing you today to tell you about the most honorable man I have ever known, Cpl Albert P. Gettings.  Al was a man who would literally give the shirt off of his back to help one of his brothers out.  His character goes unmatched with any other man I have ever known next to my father.  I just wish my family got the chance to meet him because unfortunately I can only talk to them about his memory and the legacy he left behind.  It is hard to talk about him without my eyes getting watery and wishing that he was able to live a long and fullfilled life with his former wife Stephanie.  He loved her more than anything and all he wanted to do was finish up his tour in Iraq with 2/6 Fox Co. and go home and work at his father's finance company and start a family with Stephanie.  It has been over two years since a sniper took his life in Fallujah Iraq and although I was in Fallujah that day, I was not with him when he was shot.  And that will haunt me for the rest of my life that I think I could have saved his life.  Al was the closest friend I ever had and it was because we were the same age but I still looked up to him because of the way he carried himself and how he would not be waivered by what anyone else thought of him.  He only knew how to be himself and if others didn't like it....so be it.  He was a leader in every sense of the word and defined what it meant to be a United States Marine.  The world really is a darker place without him in it and I know that for a fact.  We all miss you Al and one day we will get to meet again and then I can introduce you to my family.  I love you bro.

Former Sgt. John J. Dietz USMC