thedrifter
12-24-06, 12:45 PM
Holidays brings pain to families of those killed in war
WTHR, IN
Dec 24, 2006 12:30 PM
Indianapolis - Dorothy Faulkenburg was looking forward to her soldier-son's Christmas homecoming in 2004 when she received the devastating news that he had been killed in Iraq.
More than two years later, she still can't talk about the death of her son - Army Command Sgt. Maj. Steven W. Faulkenburg - without choking up.
The arrival of another Christmas only deepens the grief because her son, who was 45 when he died near the turbulent Iraqi city of Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004, was born on Dec. 17.
"I miss Steve terrible," she said earlier this month from her home in Lebanon Junction, Ky., confessing that had done to prepare for the holiday.
Amid the season's joy, many Indiana residents are facing the agony of holidays without loved ones who died in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - conflicts that have taken 71 lives with Indiana ties.
The first Hoosier to die, 25-year-old Sgt. Jeannette Winters, was also the first U.S. servicewoman to die in the war on terrorism.
Trained as a radio operator aboard a tanker plane used to refuel jets in mid-air, the Gary native was one of seven Marines killed when a refueling plane crashed in a mountainous area of Pakistan on Jan. 9, 2002.
Sue Brooks, the guidance office secretary at Calumet High School in Gary, said students and staff at Calumet still talk about Winters, who's honored at the school with a plaque and a tree planted in her memory.
Brooks keeps an eye on that tree, which she said has been slow-growing but resilient.
"One year, when we didn't have much rain, it almost died," she said. "I thought we were going to have to dig it up, but for some reason, it just came back to life. Like something was willing it to live."
The vast majority of soldiers and Marines with Indiana ties who have died in the Iraq or Afghan wars were young, in their 20s.
Seven were just 19, like Army Pfc. Anthony P. Seig, who was killed this fall.
The two oldest, including Steven W. Faulkenburg, were 45
They came from more than 50 cities or towns scattered throughout the state. Indianapolis has been hardest-hit with eight dead;Kokomo was five deaths; and Evansville and Fort Wayne, four each.
More than a quarter were killed by bombs, the single-largest cause of death.
Seig, a resident of Sunman in southern Indiana, was killed Sept. 9 when a rocket hit his barracks near Baghdad. He was buried the day before his 20th birthday.
His mother, Linda Seig, said there will be Christmas cheer for her family - there are grandchildren to love and celebrate - but also heartache.
She knows that the first Christmas since Tony's death is certain to be difficult.
"Well, breathing is hard, honey," she said. "That's just an everyday part of life now."
Ellie
WTHR, IN
Dec 24, 2006 12:30 PM
Indianapolis - Dorothy Faulkenburg was looking forward to her soldier-son's Christmas homecoming in 2004 when she received the devastating news that he had been killed in Iraq.
More than two years later, she still can't talk about the death of her son - Army Command Sgt. Maj. Steven W. Faulkenburg - without choking up.
The arrival of another Christmas only deepens the grief because her son, who was 45 when he died near the turbulent Iraqi city of Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004, was born on Dec. 17.
"I miss Steve terrible," she said earlier this month from her home in Lebanon Junction, Ky., confessing that had done to prepare for the holiday.
Amid the season's joy, many Indiana residents are facing the agony of holidays without loved ones who died in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - conflicts that have taken 71 lives with Indiana ties.
The first Hoosier to die, 25-year-old Sgt. Jeannette Winters, was also the first U.S. servicewoman to die in the war on terrorism.
Trained as a radio operator aboard a tanker plane used to refuel jets in mid-air, the Gary native was one of seven Marines killed when a refueling plane crashed in a mountainous area of Pakistan on Jan. 9, 2002.
Sue Brooks, the guidance office secretary at Calumet High School in Gary, said students and staff at Calumet still talk about Winters, who's honored at the school with a plaque and a tree planted in her memory.
Brooks keeps an eye on that tree, which she said has been slow-growing but resilient.
"One year, when we didn't have much rain, it almost died," she said. "I thought we were going to have to dig it up, but for some reason, it just came back to life. Like something was willing it to live."
The vast majority of soldiers and Marines with Indiana ties who have died in the Iraq or Afghan wars were young, in their 20s.
Seven were just 19, like Army Pfc. Anthony P. Seig, who was killed this fall.
The two oldest, including Steven W. Faulkenburg, were 45
They came from more than 50 cities or towns scattered throughout the state. Indianapolis has been hardest-hit with eight dead;Kokomo was five deaths; and Evansville and Fort Wayne, four each.
More than a quarter were killed by bombs, the single-largest cause of death.
Seig, a resident of Sunman in southern Indiana, was killed Sept. 9 when a rocket hit his barracks near Baghdad. He was buried the day before his 20th birthday.
His mother, Linda Seig, said there will be Christmas cheer for her family - there are grandchildren to love and celebrate - but also heartache.
She knows that the first Christmas since Tony's death is certain to be difficult.
"Well, breathing is hard, honey," she said. "That's just an everyday part of life now."
Ellie