thedrifter
10-14-02, 08:46 AM
The Associated Press
The mother of a Marine killed in Kuwait has asked President Bush to transfer her son's twin brother, also a Marine, from Japan to a base near the family home.
Norma Figueroa told Bush she already lost Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd to Kuwaiti terrorists, and she wants his brother close by at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to make sure she doesn't have to grieve again.
"I have Tony's twin brother, Michael Hiram Sledd, stationed in Okinawa and he is coming home for his brother's funeral," she wrote in an e-mail to President Bush on Thursday. "We already sacrificed one of our sons for our country."
Figueroa said she supported the president but wondered how assailants were able to penetrate the military exercise where Sledd was killed.
Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Rich Long said he didn't know whether the Corps had received Figueroa's request. He said the service has traditionally considered humanitarian issues, such as the need to be near a sick parent, in giving service members their assignments.
MacDill is also home to the U.S. Central Command, which has overall control of all U.S. military actions in the Middle East.
Sledd was shot to death Tuesday by two gunmen who ambushed Marines taking part in a training exercise in Failaka, an island 10 miles east of Kuwait City, officials said.
Sledd was involved in the war games with about 1,000 Marines from the 11th Expeditionary unit based in Camp Pendleton, about 35 miles north of San Diego, and around 900 Navy sailors.
Another Marine was wounded in the attack before Marines opened fire and killed the two Kuwaiti gunmen.
A plane carrying Sledd's remains left Kuwait early Thursday for Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Pentagon officials said. From there it was to be transferred to Tampa.
Funeral arrangements with pending with the Blount Curry and Roel Funeral Home in Carrollwood in suburban Tampa.
Sledd was also to be honored by the Marine Corps during a Friday ceremony at Camp Pendleton.
Sempers,
Roger
The mother of a Marine killed in Kuwait has asked President Bush to transfer her son's twin brother, also a Marine, from Japan to a base near the family home.
Norma Figueroa told Bush she already lost Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd to Kuwaiti terrorists, and she wants his brother close by at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa to make sure she doesn't have to grieve again.
"I have Tony's twin brother, Michael Hiram Sledd, stationed in Okinawa and he is coming home for his brother's funeral," she wrote in an e-mail to President Bush on Thursday. "We already sacrificed one of our sons for our country."
Figueroa said she supported the president but wondered how assailants were able to penetrate the military exercise where Sledd was killed.
Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Rich Long said he didn't know whether the Corps had received Figueroa's request. He said the service has traditionally considered humanitarian issues, such as the need to be near a sick parent, in giving service members their assignments.
MacDill is also home to the U.S. Central Command, which has overall control of all U.S. military actions in the Middle East.
Sledd was shot to death Tuesday by two gunmen who ambushed Marines taking part in a training exercise in Failaka, an island 10 miles east of Kuwait City, officials said.
Sledd was involved in the war games with about 1,000 Marines from the 11th Expeditionary unit based in Camp Pendleton, about 35 miles north of San Diego, and around 900 Navy sailors.
Another Marine was wounded in the attack before Marines opened fire and killed the two Kuwaiti gunmen.
A plane carrying Sledd's remains left Kuwait early Thursday for Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Pentagon officials said. From there it was to be transferred to Tampa.
Funeral arrangements with pending with the Blount Curry and Roel Funeral Home in Carrollwood in suburban Tampa.
Sledd was also to be honored by the Marine Corps during a Friday ceremony at Camp Pendleton.
Sempers,
Roger