Airman 1st Class Carl Jerome Ware Jr's death still causes pain

On my older blog at Screaming In An Empty Room , there are a few huge posts with non-combat deaths posted. I did this because it seemed there were a lot of deaths not being included in the official count, but they should matter nonetheless to the rest of us. They served, were deployed, risked their lives and ended up paying the price for their service with their lives.

When they return home, many die of wounds, yet again, they are not all included in the official total, but when the families stand at the grave site with a flag draped coffin, their family member is given the flag "from a grateful nation" but long after, when the numbers are calculated and memorials are built in tribute to the lives lost, too often, these names are not included.

Air Force Airman 1st Class Carl Jerome Ware Jr. was killed by another Airman in 2006. His father left a message on one of my posts about non-combat deaths. If we really needed any indication the pain for the families does not end, this should prove it never really ends.

Please read the following and the offer a prayer that this family will be comforted and than no death will ever be forgotten when years later we stand before the memorials.

The Associated Press In this undated photo provided by the Ware family, Air Force Airman 1st Class Carl Jerome Ware Jr. is seen with his daughter Caitlyn Melissa. Ware Jr., 22, was killed July 1 at Camp Bucca in Iraq by a single gunshot wound. At the time, the family was told it was an accidental shot fired from a fellow airman while cleaning his gun. Now the Air Force has charged that airman, Airman 1st Class Kyle J. Dalton, with Ware's murder.

Airman 1st Class Carl Jerome Ware Jr.
22 15th Security Forces Squadron, 15th Mission Support Group, 15th Airlift Wing Smyrna, Delaware Died from a non-combat related cause at Camp Bucca, Iraq, on July 1, 2006 The death of Airman 1st Class Carl J. Ware, 22, at Camp Bucca in Iraq, has been ruled a homicide, The Camden (N.J.) Courier Post reported. Fellow Airman 1st Class Kyle J. Dalton, 21, is charged with murder, failure to obey regulations and assault in the shooting, and in another incident in which he allegedly drew his weapon on Ware and another airman. Both airmen had been in Iraq with the 886th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron for only a month when the shooting occurred. Authorities originally thought it was an accident, the newspaper said. Ware's widow, Christine, said she had her doubts all along. She served in the Air Force and was honorably discharged in July as a senior airman. "I've been trained on a 9 mm (weapon)," Ware told the paper.
Airman Death in Iraq Ruled A Homicide


I received this as a comment on this post. It is from his father. One thing that needs to be thought about long after we have forgotten their stories is that the families never forget.

Airman 1st Class Carl Jerome Ware Jr. died at Camp Bucca in Iraq, 2006.
His parents, Carl Ware Sr and Rosalie Ware would like to add to your post. A cellphone message was received June 14th by Mr. Ware that his son "had been in a terrible accident and was dead." A number of calls to the military in concern for his son were never returned. Two weeks later we were called and told he was dead, and USAF Casualty Affairs confirmed this. No one has ever given his parents any proof their son was alive after June 14th, 2006. Autopsy has shown he was killed by a single 9mm gunshot to the chest,for which an Airman plead guilty to a reduced charge from murder to involuntary manslaughter by saying he was "tracking and accidentally shot him" on July 1, 2006.

Non-Combat deaths, non-caring media

A1C accused of killing fellow airman in Iraq

By Erik Holmes - staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Feb 27, 2007 7:28:35 EST

Airman 1st Class Carl J. Ware Jr. was to return from his six-month deployment to Iraq in time — if barely — for the birth of their second daughter in January. Instead, Carl Ware came home months early in a flag-draped casket, the victim of an alleged fratricide July 1 at the hands of his roommate, friend and squadron-mate at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq.

Carl and Christine Ware were relative newlyweds, and they weren’t inclined to make plans beyond getting ready for the new baby.

After all, they were only 22 years old and assumed they had all the time in the world to think about the future.

“Our only plan was to get a new vacuum when he got home,” said Christine Ware, a former airman. “The only thing we knew was that we wanted to come home [to Delaware] on vacation to have the baby.”

Airman 1st Class Kyle J. Dalton, like Ware a member of the 15th Security Forces Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, faces court-martial on charges of murder, assault and wrongfully drawing or aiming a firearm after allegedly shooting and killing Ware with a 9mm handgun. The Air Force declined to release Dalton’s age and hometown, citing privacy concerns.

Dalton’s court-martial is scheduled to begin April 23 at Langley Air Force Base, Va.; if convicted, he will face life in prison, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of all pay and allowances.

Dalton, who has been in the Air Force since July 2003, is not in pretrial confinement, but he remains in Southwest Asia at an undisclosed base. A Central Command Air Forces spokesman declined to say where Dalton is stationed, citing “host nation sensitivities.”

His tour was extended so he could be closer to his defense counsel, Capt. Jason Robertson, who is at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

Dalton and Ware deployed in May with the 886th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron to Camp Bucca, an Army detention facility for captured enemy fighters.

The Air Force Safety Center originally said in July that Ware’s death was the result of an accidental discharge while another airman was cleaning a weapon.
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A1C accused of killing fellow airman in Iraq

Airman gets 10 years for killing fellow airman

In addition to prison sentence, airman to be dishonorably discharged, demoted to E-1
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Apr 29, 2007 10:44:41 EDT

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. — Senior Airman Kyle Dalton was handed a 10-year prison sentence Tuesday for the July 1, 2006, shooting death of Senior Airman Carl Ware while both were deployed to Camp Bucca in Iraq.

In addition to the 10-year sentence, Dalton will receive a dishonorable discharge, a forfeit of pay and a reduction in rank to airman basic.

Judge Col. Thomas Cumbie delivered the sentence late Tuesday afternoon, after hearing nearly two days of pleas for leniency from Dalton’s parents and others, as well as stories from Ware’s family and fellow airmen about how Ware’s loss had changed their lives and left them angry.

The maximum prison term Dalton could have received was 12 years.

Dalton, of Claremont, N.H., had faced life in prison. However on Monday he pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence in exchange for prosecutors dropping the murder charge and an assault charge from an earlier incident at Camp Bucca that involved Dalton pointing an M4 rifle at an airman.

Dalton admitted to pointing a 9 mm handgun at Ware as both airmen stood in their Camp Bucca barracks and pulling the trigger. The single bullet struck Ware’s upper right chest and pierced his lungs and heart before exiting out his back. He died within minutes, an autopsy concluded.
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Airman gets 10 years for killing fellow airman