Shaffer
05-27-03, 08:04 AM
Of this, the family and friends of Marine Sgt. Kirk Allen Straseskie are sure: He is wearing his dress blues and standing guard at the gates of heaven. Because that's where he said he would be if he were killed, and he was always a man of his word.
A week ago, Straseskie, 23, was standing on the bank of an Iraqi canal when a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed into the water shortly after takeoff. According to the Pentagon, he immediately plunged in to try to save the crew of four fellow Marines.
Instead, they died together -- some of the 23 U.S. soldiers, airmen and Marines who have lost their lives since President Bush declared on May 1 that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
In the public's mind, the war may be over, but U.S. troops continue to fall in Iraq at the rate of almost one a day. That is down from an average of three a day between the start of the war on March 19 and May 1, when a total of 139 American service members were killed.
The continuing casualties have had no discernible impact on the administration's willingness to keep U.S. forces in Iraq. On the contrary, the number of American GIs on the ground has risen by 15,000, to nearly 160,000, since Bush declared victory on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38939-2003May25?language=printer
A week ago, Straseskie, 23, was standing on the bank of an Iraqi canal when a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter crashed into the water shortly after takeoff. According to the Pentagon, he immediately plunged in to try to save the crew of four fellow Marines.
Instead, they died together -- some of the 23 U.S. soldiers, airmen and Marines who have lost their lives since President Bush declared on May 1 that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
In the public's mind, the war may be over, but U.S. troops continue to fall in Iraq at the rate of almost one a day. That is down from an average of three a day between the start of the war on March 19 and May 1, when a total of 139 American service members were killed.
The continuing casualties have had no discernible impact on the administration's willingness to keep U.S. forces in Iraq. On the contrary, the number of American GIs on the ground has risen by 15,000, to nearly 160,000, since Bush declared victory on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A38939-2003May25?language=printer