Family: Longer tour cut GI’s life short

[unhappycamper]

Family: Longer tour cut GI’s life short
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 4, 2007 16:55:55 EST

LEE, Maine — The family of a soldier from Fort Lewis, Wash., who died in Iraq says he would have been safe on U.S. soil if his tour had not been extended.

Bill Emery said his son, Army Cpl. Blair William Emery, was supposed to come home in October. Instead, his tour was extended by another three months.

“That’s what bothers me the most right now,” Bill Emery said.

Emery, 24, assigned to the 571st Military Police Company, 97th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade at Fort Lewis, had been injured twice before he was killed by an improvised explosive device that was detonated near his vehicle on Nov. 30 in Baqubah.

In March, he suffered a concussion and an injured hip from another IED blast, and he was hit by a bullet fragment while he was standing in his vehicle’s turret in another incident, his father told the Bangor Daily News.

Emery is receiving a posthumous promotion to sergeant.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_extensiondeath_071204/