Meet Robert Wesley Tucker....

[Punkingal]

Wesley was a member of Troop K, 3rd Squadron of the 278th Regimental Combat Team in Jamestown, Tennessee, part of the Tennessee National Guard.

Wesley was 20 years old, a 2003 graduate of Celina High School. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Muriel, and has an 11 month old daughter, Cameron. Wesley went to Iraq in November of 2004, as part of the largest deployment in Tennessee National Guard history. He was scheduled to come home next week, back to Muriel and Cameron, and his parents and sister, and this small-town community in the foothills of the Cumberland mountains in northern Tennessee. Sadly, Wesley is coming home, but he was killed last week, on October 13th, when an "Improvised Explosive Device" went off near the humvee he was driving near Ad Dujayl, Iraq.

So today, there are ribbons and signs and flags all over town, and everyone waits for Wesley to come home. The soldiers who came to tell his mother he was killed told her he fought hard to live, through several cardiac arrests, but he lost too much blood, and so he is gone. He won't be here to ride his horses, or his four-wheeler, or to see Cameron grow up. Cameron knows his picture...she points at it, smiles, and says Daddy. And that is all she will ever know of Wesley...just the pictures and the memories of others.

This is my hometown, and this is the first soldier lost from this immediate area. And I am so angry. I consider this boy a victim of Bush and Cheney and Condaleeza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld and that whole cabal of war criminals. But I can't say that to anyone here at home, because that would be considered an insult to Wesley. So I am telling you about this lovely boy, another victim of George Bush. May he rest in peace, and may George Bush someday get what he deserves.

[Fridays Child]

1. This should be submitted to your paper.

Very well written, heartbreaking.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. I agree. RIP

[afdip]

2. it's not sad . . . it's a fucking outrage

[babylonsister]

3. RIP, Mr. Tucker, and

damn this admin to hell!:grr:

[OKNancy]

4. My sympathies to his family and to you

and your community. My contempt to those responsible for his death...all of them.

[TahitiNut]

5. Bless your heart, Punkingal!

Beautifully stated, as always. :hug: :applause: :loveya:

[Punkingal]

9. Hi Sweetheart,

Thanks so much for the compliment. This post is from the heart..I am having a very hard time not putting up a sign that says "George Bush Killed Wesley."

[WLKjr]

6. They keep getting closer and closer to home

I know of one lady I worked with in a Wal-Mart in Lima who ran a McDonalds in the store whos son died in Iraq.

[Straight Shooter]

8. Maybe the folks of Jamestown, TN, need to revise the definition of insult

I can think of no greater insult than to create a pack of lies which leads a young man to his death and robs his family and friends of his companionship forever. I'm sick of people who think the melodrama of "ribbons and signs and flags" somehow makes up for the loss of life. What, do they think they're in a play or something?

Thank you for a very heartfelt post. The number of deaths can seem like a cold statistic, until we read the story of someone like Wesley.

[Punkingal]

15. I feel the way you do about the flags and signs,

but on the other hand, I know that people sometimes think that is a way to show respect. I don't know....it was the sight of all the ribbons and flags that really got me so upset. And there are several signs that say, "Our hometown Hero." He was a sweet kid, and a good kid, but what is so heroic about getting blown up for George Bush's personal vendetta? I am just sad, and angry, and frustrated. It is maddening!

[Straight Shooter]

16. To each his own or to each her own, I suppose

But what gives them the right to dictate that no one should agree with them? They consider it an "insult" to question this young man's death, meaning everyone who thinks differently should shut up.

It's all very sad, and I just cringe when I see how people completely ignore the facts and instead focus on the melodrama. I wish you well in your hometown and hope you will send your thoughts in a letter to the editor. If you decide not to, however, believe me, I'll understand.

I'm truly sorry for the loss your town is experiencing, and do not want to diminish that in the least.

[andyhappy]

10. condolences

I am so so sorry.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. I am so sorry. He leaves a baby behind and yet was just a baby himself.

[Supersedeas]

12. warm regards and our sympathies to you and all the family

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

13. Reading this just gave me chills n/t

[Rowdyboy]

14. This same story has been told nearly 2000 times....So many lost forever

The children, the spouses, the families and friends, all devastated, their lives changed beyond recognition. That doesn't even address the thousands more who've been wounded-many now suffering permanent disabilities. And its all for nothing.

And these are just the losses on our side. If you include the Iraqi people, you're well in the hundreds of thousands of lives ended or ruined.

It goes beyond heartbreaking-I do pray that there really is a hell, because I hope that George and his band of bullies spends a nightmarish eternity in its deepest levels.

[Punkingal]

17. Update.....

Wesley arrived home last night....there were people on both sides of the road coming into town with candles, to welcome him home. His body is lying in state at the high school gymnasium, and his funeral is tomorrow. School has been cancelled for the day. It seems like half the people in town have flags on their trucks or cars, and I just seeth with frustration at the things I can't say.

I think about those arrogant bastards in the White House cooking up all these reasons to go to war, about the lies they have told, and are still telling, with one of the results being this child lying in a casket on the gymnasium floor where he played basketball, with a body so broken the casket cannot be open. I hear Condileeza Rice talk about results, but she never talks about these kind of results. I hope they all get indicted. But even that wouldn't be enough to make up for what they have done, and are continuing to do.

Thanks for all your kind responses when I posted this originally, and thanks for being here so I can express myself, since I can't do it in a town full of pain.

[annabanana]

18. I am so sorry..

I swing wildly between sorrow and outrage and remorse that I, as an American citizen, was unable to prevent this senseless death.

Then I hunker down, and plow ahead, determined that there should be no more.