Book Binds Father and Son

The Record - Hackensack, NJ

The death of a son. The determination of a father.

Two and a half years after Stockton native Darrell "Skip" Griffin Jr. was killed in Iraq, the book he started to write has been published.

That's thanks to the efforts of his father, Darrell Griffin Sr., who -- in a rare move by high-ranking officials -- was granted permission to travel to the war zone and meet Skip's comrades after his death in March 2007.

The book, "Last Journey: A Father and Son in Wartime," bears both of their names on its cover. And indeed, much of the story consists of communications between father and son while Skip served overseas.

The elder Griffin will return to Stockton this week, a sort of homecoming in which the memory of his son will be honored in a public ceremony.

"I've been getting scores of e-mails from soldiers who tell me what a super soldier he was, but he also questioned the war, and that's OK to do," Griffin said. "The Army is not full of young men just trained to shoot a rifle. They're trained also to be peacemakers, to win the hearts as well as shoot a gun.

"What makes me feel good is that the book has kind of opened eyes, and that's what Skip wanted."

Griffin was just out of Franklin High School when Skip was conceived. They lived at the eastside Brown Top Trailer Park; Griffin took college classes during the day and washed dishes at night. Skip attended Roosevelt Elementary School.

After he became an accountant, Griffin and the family moved from Stockton nearly 30 years ago, but some relatives and friends remain in the area. Like Stockton's Steve Spatola, a retired Army colonel who knew Griffin as a kid but lost contact with him until shortly after Skip died.

Spatola is helping organize Thursday's 11 a.m. ceremony and book signing at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in the Weberstown Mall. The book has been well-received, earning a favorable review in the New York Times.

"It's a very good book -- heartwarming," Spatola said. "It asks some time-eternal questions" about the philosophy of war.

Of course, it changes nothing about Skip's death.

"It hasn't brought closure," Griffin said, "but it made me feel like I did what I was supposed to do. No doubt I was supposed to do this for Skip."

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