News of a fallen soldier still arrives at the front door of grief-stricken family members in the form of a knock at the door, but the stepdad of one soldier killed on the Fourth of July turned to Twitter not only as a way to share the news, but to vent his grief. From the Jerusalem Post:

“It was the Fourth of July, Independence Day, when a terrorist breached the perimeter of an US base in eastern Afghanistan.

The suicide bomber was driving a truck filled with explosives. It detonated just outside the gates of the base, killing Aaron Fairbairn, 21, and another officer, according to David Masters, Fairbairn’s stepfather from Olympia, Washington.

‘There was a knock at the door,’ Masters told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. ‘I was on the phone with one of my other sons, when I looked out the door and saw two full-dress officers on the porch.’ When the family was told the news of Fairbairn’s death, they were in a state of disbelief.

‘We thought, oh, God, this couldn’t be,’ Masters said. ‘We just talked to him last night. He said he never leaves the base, is playing video games, watching TVÂ… and working out with free weights.’

He and his wife Shelley began contacting relatives and dialing any person’s number they could think of to contact, when they realized they had no way of reaching Fairbairn’s friends. They did not know the passwords to his e-mail or MySpace accounts, which were his main means of communicating with them.

So Masters began posting notice of Fairbairn’s death on Twitter, the social networking site: ‘They killed my son, Aaron!’ he wrote.”

It became a top topic on Twitter and Masters has followed up on his feed. “Thank you all so much for thanking Aaron, and thank you all for love and support… #thankyouaaron #1… amen,” he tweeted.