Teen's photo of soldier reading to child online goes viral

LAKEWOOD, Washington — A photo of a U.S. soldier reading to a child over the internet at a Lakewood bookstore went viral late last month, and now an effort is afoot to figure out who the soldier is.

KIRO 7 partners The News Tribune reported that 16-year-old Hannah Pancho snapped the photo while she was at the Lakewood Barnes & Noble café. She posted it to Facebook and one of her friends put it on Reddit. It's also been featured on MSN.com.

“I saw that he had a book and he was reading, and then I could hear the child’s voice,” Pancho told the Tribune. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, guys, this is so sweet,’ and I started to cry.”

Pancho comes from a military family herself. She said she’d like to meet the soldier in the photo, but she also didn’t intend for her post to get so popular.

No one knows the soldier’s name or if he knows about the picture, but employees at the bookstore said he’s a regular.

KIRO