Tears, grief and a salute: A fallen soldier comes home

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=2378647

Published Sunday | May 6, 2007
Tears, grief and a salute: A fallen soldier comes home
BY BOBBI BOWMAN AND TODD WELVEART
SPECIAL TO THE WORLD-HERALD

The normal hubbub of activity at Omaha's Eppley Airfield came to a sudden halt Tuesday when word spread that the body of a Nebraska soldier had arrived from Iraq.

Dozens of strangers paused in solemn silence as the saddest kind of family homecoming unfolded.

People gathered at the giant terminal windows near a Northwest Airlines gate. They watched as the soldiers' grief-stricken relatives and friends descended stairs to the tarmac and waited for the casket to be unloaded from Northwest Flight 1736.

An honor guard stood waiting at the plane with a bier, a portable platform used to carry a coffin.


Members of the 82nd Airborne honor guard fold the flag of Staff Sgt. Kenneth Locker Jr. at his funeral Thursday in Burwell, Neb.

No voice of authority had announced what was happening. No one said it was Staff Sgt. Kenneth Locker Jr., 28, of Burwell, that he was one of nine soldiers killed April 23 by an improvised explosive device. No one mentioned that Locker was the father of three sons, or that he liked eating pizza and playing cards. Or that the mountains of Wyoming were his favorite place in the world.

But a young female TSA agent betrayed that something terrible was going on as she ran off from the security checkpoint, weeping.

"I can't take any more," she said.

FULL story at link.


W doesn't want us to even see photos, so I hope everybody reads this story and others like it.

[Monkeyman]

1. RIP Death From The Sky

[ninkasi]

3. You know what?

The ones who sent this young man to his death don't look at him, or the other men and women serving as human. They are merely meat for the grinder, and their profits, and gaining power, is all they care for. I know that most of us would be willing to make sacrifices if America were invaded, but his is strictly a made-up war, one Bush wanted before he stole the first election.

They simply don't care about the grief, and the pain, that will haunt the survivors for the rest of their lives. They don't care about the fatherless and motherless children, the spouses learning to cope with losing arms, and lets, and suffering brain damage. They.Don't.Care.

Sometimes, when my husband and I go into a large grocery store, seeing the many fully stocked shelves, people shopping, and chatting on cell phones, I almost lose it. I feel like running up to them and asking how in the name of God they can carry on normal lives, with our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives, our brothers and sisters, being butchered for oil.

The irony, I guess, is that I don't know anybody serving in Iraq, or Afghanistan, but the report of each death and injury saddens me. I have not had a peaceful moment since Bush opened the gates of hell in Iraq, merely to sate whatever arrogant, adolescent, perverted delusion he had. I want nothing more than our men and women to come home safely, and to stop dying and being maimed for a cause that never existed.

I want the Iraqis to be able to control their own destiny, and for us to stop killing and maiming them. I want them to be able, in as far as they are able, to heal. I do think we owe them the resources to do so, but I believe a windfall profits tax on those profiting, and rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthy is where we should find the money to do this.

[Christa]

2. RIP

It breaks my heart - I cannot IMAGINE how hard it must be for the families and loved ones :cry: