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thedrifter
02-26-06, 08:19 AM
Soldiers killed in '91 attack honored
Sunday, February 26, 2006
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sgt. John T. Boxler has five grandchildren.

Spc. Christine L. Mayes has a nephew.

Neither of them lived long enough to meet their youngest family members, but those children will always know who they were.

Sgt. Boxler and Spc. Mayes were killed 15 years ago when a scud missile struck their barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during Operation Desert Storm. There were 28 soldiers killed in the attack; 13 of them were from the 14th Quartermaster Detachment in Greensburg, which became the unit to take the heaviest casualties during the first Gulf War.

Yesterday, their families, other members of their unit and veterans who had never met any of them, gathered at the Greensburg Memorial U.S. Army Reserve Center to mark the anniversary of the detachment's loss. There were speeches, the laying of a wreath and a 21-gun salute.

"What did your granddad do?" Rebecca Boxler, Sgt. Boxler's daughter, asked her 11-year-old niece Taylor.

Taylor, who was suddenly reluctant to talk, looked down.

"He went and fought for everybody?" Ms. Boxler asked Taylor. "Yeah," Taylor replied.

"We love him," chimed in Taylor's cousin, 3-year-old Alana Berry.

Rebecca Boxler was 15 when her father was killed. Her brother John was 17. Their father was 44.

Now Sgt. Boxler's children both have children. Young Mr. Boxler has three children, Taylor, Devin, 5, and Dayne, 4. Ms. Boxler is the mother of Alana and Alexis Berry, 6.

The family drove in from Johnstown for the service.

"He would be 60 this May," said Elaine Boxler, Sgt. Boxler's widow. "I can't believe it. I was 40 when he was killed."

Spc. Mayes' family made the trip from Punxsutawney. Her mother and father, Darlene and Frank Mayes, were there. Her two sisters and her nephew, Shane Campbell, 4, were all there.

Yesterday, Shane petted the white homing pigeon that was released during the ceremony just before the bird was tossed into the air. The bird flew up and circled above the crowd with 20 other members of its flock that were also released during the service.

Spc. Mayes was just 22 when she was killed.

Others in her unit have gone on with their lives. None are still members of the 14th Quartermaster Detachment.

Angela Betton, now of Arlington, Va., was a 20-year-old specialist in the water purification unit when the missile hit their barracks. She spent more than a year after the attack in Walter Reed Memorial Army Medical Center enduring multiple surgeries to her broken left leg.

Now she's a hairdresser. But she finds herself thinking back to that attack every February.

"Your heart, it just gets a little bit sadder," she said.

So this year, she returned to Greensburg, where she got to spend time with the others who with her during the Gulf War.

The Mayes family makes the trip from Punxsutawney every year for the memorial service.

"It means a lot to know people still think about them once in a while and to know they didn't die in vain," Darlene Mayes said. "It's just nice to know people care."

(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.)

Ellie