The Ferris wheel at the Minnesota State Fair offered a bird’s-eye view of an end-of-summer, mid-American ritual. From the top, you could see the places where 4-H kids showed off their prized hogs and cows, where farmers ogled gleaming tractors, and where throngs lined up for food-of-every-kind-on-a-stick.

Robert and Kathy Hanson had walked the Midway, had seen the sights. And they were on their way home, in their car, when the cell phone buzzed.

It was the military, and what the officer would not say spoke volumes about their son, Josh, on duty in Iraq. Something was terribly wrong.

Robert knew if Josh had just been injured he’d get details on the phone. But the caller had news that had to be delivered in person.

Gripping the wheel, Robert didn’t know whether to hurry home, or slow down and delay the inevitable.

Finally, the Hansons reached their house deep in the woods outside Dent, Minn. They didn’t have to wait long.

Within minutes, two officers in dress uniforms knocked on the door.

It was their sad duty to report the death of Staff Sgt. Joshua Robert Hanson.

On Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006, several hundred people filed into the gym of Pelican Rapids High School for Hanson’s funeral, paying tribute to him with prayer and song.

Classmates, teachers, friends and family remembered the high school linebacker whose football team won the state’s 1997 AA championship. The duck, pheasant and deer hunter who loved the outdoors and tubing on the Otter Tail River. The taekwondo black belt who collected a row of trophies. The happy-go-lucky guy who was always smiling and got a kick out of making up funny words. “Truly an unfairity,” was a favorite phrase.

At the end, there was a rendition of “Amazing Grace.”

“’Twas grace that brought us safe thus far,” sang Josh’s younger brother, Jake. “And grace will lead us home.”

Two schools

The funerals mounted (eventually, there would be 21, in all), as did the happy occasions the soldiers missed during what’s been called the longest deployment of the Iraq war.

Proms and graduations. Recitals and soccer tournaments. Holiday dinners and anniversaries. Small events, maybe, in normal times but magnified to those closest in a time of war.