Ray Vivier, someone you should know.

As related by Brett Zongker, of the Associated Press:

ARLINGTON, Va. – Ray Vivier had been an adventurer, a Marine veteran who explored the country from South Carolina to Alaska, the father of five children.

The 61-year-old also was a man starting to get his life back together after living for years in a shanty beneath a Cleveland bridge. He had struggled with alcoholism, but by November he had a welding job, friends and a place to stay at a boarding house. He rescued five people from that house when arsonists set it ablaze — but Vivier couldn't save himself. He and three others died, and two people have been charged in their deaths. Vivier's body, unclaimed and unidentified for weeks, seemed destined for an anonymous, modest burial.

You can read the rest of the story here. [And there's more here below the fold] At my other home, Castle Argghhh! we have a tradition where we "dance" a hero to Fiddler's Green.  Today, at the Burn Pit, we dance: In Memoriam of Marine Private Ray Vivier, who had a brief, unremarkable career and subsequently a hard life.  But when push came to shove, former Marine Vivier pushed and shoved his way to Fiddler's Green, that pushing and shoving keeping five other people from making an early rendezvous with their destinies.  I would rather live next to a homeless vet like Ray Vivier, than to a wretch like that poseur McManus.  When you compare and contrast, you begin to understand why Stolen Valor cases generate such heat in our community. (John Donovan is a Legionnaire with the Department of Kansas with service in the U.S. Army. He blogs at his own website The Castle Argghhh!)