thedrifter
04-15-04, 11:45 AM
April 15, 2004
Deadly Week in Iraq Ends in Tears for the Fallen
By MONICA DAVEY
ROOKFIELD, Wis., April 14 — In a small town near Dallas, people lined the streets and waved flags for a funeral procession for Sgt. Gerardo Moreno of the Army. In Bradenton, Fla., Bach and Brahms were played in honor of Pfc. Christopher R. Cobb of the Marines, who had played the violin in high school. In Memphis, friends and family met for a viewing of Capt. Brent Morel of the Marines, whose relatives say he died fulfilling a mission he believed was worthwhile.
And here in the Milwaukee suburbs, family, friends and even strangers grieved over the death of Specialist Michelle M. Witmer, and some expressed anger at the prolonged sacrifice that had been demanded of her National Guard unit.
"At this point, I want to just go over and bring her home myself," an anguished Marie Galonski said of her own daughter, Specialist Juliana Bruening, who is in Specialist Witmer's unit and trained alongside her. "They said Juliana would be home in a year, and every time you turn around, it's another delay. Now I'm terrified and angry. The way I'm looking at this, this should have never happened to Michelle."
Although President Bush declared major combat over almost a year ago, last week was the deadliest yet for Americans in uniform. The Department of Defense identified 64 service members who died in the week that ended on Saturday. Until then, the highest toll had come many months ago, not long after the start of the war last March, in a week when 50 Americans died.
The dead came from cities and small towns across the continental United States, as well as from Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands. They came from all the major service branches — the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, as well as the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
They were as young as 18, as old as 45. At least two were women.
And this week their remains were returned home.
The death of Specialist Witmer, who was killed when her Humvee was attacked in Baghdad, attracted considerable attention after her father, John, urged his other daughters, who are also serving in the Guard in Iraq, to stay home after the funeral instead of returning to the units that they consider their other families. The sisters have not said what they will do.
But in the crowd that filled the church here Wednesday night to honor Specialist Witmer, relatives of other Wisconsin National Guard members were torn by the question. The death of Specialist Witmer, 20, brought the mounting dangers on the streets of Baghdad into clear focus for these military families of the 32nd Military Police Company. And then came the news that their own soldiers — Specialist Witmer's colleagues — would have to stay in Iraq even longer than planned, their tours extended by as much as four months.
Some families of the 32nd said they would accept the delay, just as they had the war. Others, though, were weighing whether to fight it. Some signed petitions. Others announced a rally to oppose it. And on a Web site for the unit's families, worries came tumbling forth. "It's been over a year, and she needs to be home," one man wrote of his soldier. "She is tired and can only handle so much. She is losing hope, and I need her too."
As chilling scenes of deadly skirmishes and hostage-taking played out in Iraq, funerals, one after the next, began filling long days in places like this. In different corners of the country, as the total American death toll climbed above 670, the eulogies, the salutes, the coffins came faster than ever.
Friends here said Michelle Witmer and her two sisters had joined the Guard to help pay for college. Michelle Witmer signed on in January of 2002. From Iraq, she sent home long dispatches describing the violence she had seen, the time she came close to vomiting at the sight of a bloodied Iraqi, the chaos at the Baghdad police station where she worked, the crazed traffic and maniacal driving, and the children.
"The children literally swarm you," she wrote. "Smiling little toddlers wave and cry after us saying, `Misses, misses . . . please water, please food.' These children usually wander around in filthy clothes and no shoes. Some of them can't be more than 4 years old. It breaks my heart not to be able to give them anything."
Because of her death, Michelle Witmer's sisters, Specialist Rachel Witmer and Sgt. Charity Witmer, get to decide whether to finish their time in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Tim Donovan of the Wisconsin National Guard. But other members of the Guard, who expected to return home in early May, learned on Sunday that they were being ordered to stay as long as 120 more days.
"We're disappointed in this development too," Colonel Donovan said on Wednesday. "We had been looking forward to welcoming them home, and we certainly understand the concern of the family members."
Elsewhere, there were other scattered signs of protest.
In Washington on Wednesday, two dozen military families, most members of Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace, carried hundreds of carnations — one for each dead service member — to the White House gates, saying they wanted President Bush to halt what they consider an unjustified war. "It is our loved ones who are being used as cannon fodder," said one organizer, Nancy Lessin, the mother of a marine who served in Iraq.
But at many of the funerals and wakes around the country on Wednesday, there was little talk of politics or policy. There was only room for memories.
As church bells tolled in Terrell, Tex., people stood silently along the streets as a hearse drove by. Some held flags. Others saluted Sergeant Moreno, 23, who died on April 6 in Ashula, Iraq, when fighters attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.
"We're out here because of what that boy did for all of us," said Laura Dodson of Terrell. "He made the ultimate sacrifice. How could we not be out here to show our support? I wanted to show the family that we back them and we appreciate what he did."
Businesses in Terrell let their employees leave work to watch the 10-minute procession through town.
Before he left for Iraq, Sergeant Moreno told his wife, Teresa, and his mother, Sandra Iracheta, that he had a feeling he would not be coming back.
"And yet he went with the courage that only the Holy Spirit can give and he went with pride and love for his career and vocation in the Army," said the Rev. Michael Forge. "He died so the Iraqi people could share in the possibility of freedom."
Private Cobb, the violin player from Florida, found himself in Iraq because he had deep passion for being a marine, his mourners said at his funeral Wednesday, and because he wanted to help his mother. He went to Iraq a few months ago, his friends said, and died from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province on April 6.
Private Cobb, 19, signed up for the Marines last September, in part because he wanted to earn enough to buy his mother a home of her own, said Louis Blumenberg Jr., a relative. The family had always lived in an apartment, Mr. Blumenberg said.
In high school, he had loved music.
"He was good," said Richard Jorgensen, the director of orchestras at Bayshore High School. "He was not one of my flashy front row players, but he was a kid who knew that there is more to music than playing. He would stay after a performance and help put all the equipment away."
In Memphis on Wednesday, another long line of people waited to pass a coffin where Captain Morel's body bore his Marine uniform.
Captain Morel, 27, hoped to become a four-star general some day, his father, Mike, said. He died on April 7 in Falluja.
Mr. Morel said he struggled to even speak about his son now. But he also said the recent string of deaths, even that of his own son, had not shaken his feelings that the war in Iraq was the right thing.
"This war has to be fought to conclusion," Mr. Morel said in the parking lot outside his son's visitation. "It can't be fought with velvet gloves. I do not want those men and women to die in vain. I'll be mad if they do."
continued.....
Deadly Week in Iraq Ends in Tears for the Fallen
By MONICA DAVEY
ROOKFIELD, Wis., April 14 — In a small town near Dallas, people lined the streets and waved flags for a funeral procession for Sgt. Gerardo Moreno of the Army. In Bradenton, Fla., Bach and Brahms were played in honor of Pfc. Christopher R. Cobb of the Marines, who had played the violin in high school. In Memphis, friends and family met for a viewing of Capt. Brent Morel of the Marines, whose relatives say he died fulfilling a mission he believed was worthwhile.
And here in the Milwaukee suburbs, family, friends and even strangers grieved over the death of Specialist Michelle M. Witmer, and some expressed anger at the prolonged sacrifice that had been demanded of her National Guard unit.
"At this point, I want to just go over and bring her home myself," an anguished Marie Galonski said of her own daughter, Specialist Juliana Bruening, who is in Specialist Witmer's unit and trained alongside her. "They said Juliana would be home in a year, and every time you turn around, it's another delay. Now I'm terrified and angry. The way I'm looking at this, this should have never happened to Michelle."
Although President Bush declared major combat over almost a year ago, last week was the deadliest yet for Americans in uniform. The Department of Defense identified 64 service members who died in the week that ended on Saturday. Until then, the highest toll had come many months ago, not long after the start of the war last March, in a week when 50 Americans died.
The dead came from cities and small towns across the continental United States, as well as from Puerto Rico and the Mariana Islands. They came from all the major service branches — the Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines, as well as the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.
They were as young as 18, as old as 45. At least two were women.
And this week their remains were returned home.
The death of Specialist Witmer, who was killed when her Humvee was attacked in Baghdad, attracted considerable attention after her father, John, urged his other daughters, who are also serving in the Guard in Iraq, to stay home after the funeral instead of returning to the units that they consider their other families. The sisters have not said what they will do.
But in the crowd that filled the church here Wednesday night to honor Specialist Witmer, relatives of other Wisconsin National Guard members were torn by the question. The death of Specialist Witmer, 20, brought the mounting dangers on the streets of Baghdad into clear focus for these military families of the 32nd Military Police Company. And then came the news that their own soldiers — Specialist Witmer's colleagues — would have to stay in Iraq even longer than planned, their tours extended by as much as four months.
Some families of the 32nd said they would accept the delay, just as they had the war. Others, though, were weighing whether to fight it. Some signed petitions. Others announced a rally to oppose it. And on a Web site for the unit's families, worries came tumbling forth. "It's been over a year, and she needs to be home," one man wrote of his soldier. "She is tired and can only handle so much. She is losing hope, and I need her too."
As chilling scenes of deadly skirmishes and hostage-taking played out in Iraq, funerals, one after the next, began filling long days in places like this. In different corners of the country, as the total American death toll climbed above 670, the eulogies, the salutes, the coffins came faster than ever.
Friends here said Michelle Witmer and her two sisters had joined the Guard to help pay for college. Michelle Witmer signed on in January of 2002. From Iraq, she sent home long dispatches describing the violence she had seen, the time she came close to vomiting at the sight of a bloodied Iraqi, the chaos at the Baghdad police station where she worked, the crazed traffic and maniacal driving, and the children.
"The children literally swarm you," she wrote. "Smiling little toddlers wave and cry after us saying, `Misses, misses . . . please water, please food.' These children usually wander around in filthy clothes and no shoes. Some of them can't be more than 4 years old. It breaks my heart not to be able to give them anything."
Because of her death, Michelle Witmer's sisters, Specialist Rachel Witmer and Sgt. Charity Witmer, get to decide whether to finish their time in Iraq, said Lt. Col. Tim Donovan of the Wisconsin National Guard. But other members of the Guard, who expected to return home in early May, learned on Sunday that they were being ordered to stay as long as 120 more days.
"We're disappointed in this development too," Colonel Donovan said on Wednesday. "We had been looking forward to welcoming them home, and we certainly understand the concern of the family members."
Elsewhere, there were other scattered signs of protest.
In Washington on Wednesday, two dozen military families, most members of Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace, carried hundreds of carnations — one for each dead service member — to the White House gates, saying they wanted President Bush to halt what they consider an unjustified war. "It is our loved ones who are being used as cannon fodder," said one organizer, Nancy Lessin, the mother of a marine who served in Iraq.
But at many of the funerals and wakes around the country on Wednesday, there was little talk of politics or policy. There was only room for memories.
As church bells tolled in Terrell, Tex., people stood silently along the streets as a hearse drove by. Some held flags. Others saluted Sergeant Moreno, 23, who died on April 6 in Ashula, Iraq, when fighters attacked his unit with a rocket-propelled grenade.
"We're out here because of what that boy did for all of us," said Laura Dodson of Terrell. "He made the ultimate sacrifice. How could we not be out here to show our support? I wanted to show the family that we back them and we appreciate what he did."
Businesses in Terrell let their employees leave work to watch the 10-minute procession through town.
Before he left for Iraq, Sergeant Moreno told his wife, Teresa, and his mother, Sandra Iracheta, that he had a feeling he would not be coming back.
"And yet he went with the courage that only the Holy Spirit can give and he went with pride and love for his career and vocation in the Army," said the Rev. Michael Forge. "He died so the Iraqi people could share in the possibility of freedom."
Private Cobb, the violin player from Florida, found himself in Iraq because he had deep passion for being a marine, his mourners said at his funeral Wednesday, and because he wanted to help his mother. He went to Iraq a few months ago, his friends said, and died from hostile fire in Al Anbar Province on April 6.
Private Cobb, 19, signed up for the Marines last September, in part because he wanted to earn enough to buy his mother a home of her own, said Louis Blumenberg Jr., a relative. The family had always lived in an apartment, Mr. Blumenberg said.
In high school, he had loved music.
"He was good," said Richard Jorgensen, the director of orchestras at Bayshore High School. "He was not one of my flashy front row players, but he was a kid who knew that there is more to music than playing. He would stay after a performance and help put all the equipment away."
In Memphis on Wednesday, another long line of people waited to pass a coffin where Captain Morel's body bore his Marine uniform.
Captain Morel, 27, hoped to become a four-star general some day, his father, Mike, said. He died on April 7 in Falluja.
Mr. Morel said he struggled to even speak about his son now. But he also said the recent string of deaths, even that of his own son, had not shaken his feelings that the war in Iraq was the right thing.
"This war has to be fought to conclusion," Mr. Morel said in the parking lot outside his son's visitation. "It can't be fought with velvet gloves. I do not want those men and women to die in vain. I'll be mad if they do."
continued.....