Police and Patriot Guard Riders rescue crash victims during fallen soldier escort

Police, Patriot Guard Help Crash Victims in Ind.

VALPARAISO, Ind. January 15, 2012
Police and motorcyclists escorting the body of a fallen soldier home from Afghanistan have stopped to pull four people — including 6-year-old twins — from a burning Jeep after a crash in northwest Indiana.

Porter County police say 35-year-old Ana Pina was driving a Jeep carrying her children and mother Saturday when the vehicle was rear-ended by a pickup truck. The Jeep caught fire and crossed the median in front of the procession for Spc. Robert J. Tauteris Jr.
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Hundreds turn out to honor soldier killed in action

Hundreds turn out to honor soldier killed in action
7:02 PM, Oct. 28, 2011
Written by
R. Norman Moody
FLORIDA TODAY

Family, friends, community and veterans gathered for the funeral of Army Specialist Jeremiah “Jerry” Sancho today. Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, was killed in a roadside bombing Oct. 13 while on foot patrol in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. / TIM SHORTT/FLORIDA TODAY

MELBOURNE -- Family, friends, veterans and even some who didn't know Army Specialist Jeremiah “Jerry” Sancho gathered for his funeral today. Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, was killed in a roadside bombing Oct. 13 while on foot patrol in Kandahar province, Afghanistan.

In front of about 200 people, Sancho was eulogized as someone who was a free spirit but who had a lot of love for his friends and family.

"Jerry was an impressive young man," said Rob Medina, who led the service. "Yes, he was called Hurricane Jerry but he loved."

Family members were coping as well as can be expected.
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Family, friends reflect on soldier's life: Family, friends, veterans and even some who didn't know Army Specialist Jeremiah “Jerry” Sancho gathered for his funeral Friday. Sancho, 23, of Palm Bay, was killed Oct. 13 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan. Video by Breuse Hickman

also
Fallen Pay Bay Soldier Returns Home

Death of Fort Leonard Wood soldiers in Afghanistan hits base hard

Death of Fort Leonard Wood soldiers in Afghanistan hits base hard
BY PHILLIP O'CONNOR
October 7, 2011

From left: Pvt. David Drake, 1st Lt. Ivan Lechowich and Spc. Steven Gutowski

The deaths last week of three Fort Leonard Wood soldiers equaled the largest loss of life from a single incident for those deployed from Missouri's biggest military installation since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began.

First Lt. Ivan Lechowich, Spc. Steven Gutowski and Pvt. David Drake, all members of the 5th Engineer Battalion, were killed Sept. 28 in Afghanistan's Ghazni province when their mine-resistant vehicle was struck by a hidden explosive. It was the third time three battalion soldiers had died from a single roadside bomb.

Located about 130 miles southwest of St. Louis, Fort Leonard Wood might best be known for its role as a training installation. Each year, about 90,000 military members pass through the post, including about 30,000 Army recruits who spend nine weeks learning the fundamentals of being a soldier. But recent years also have seen an increase in the number of combat-ready troops based at the 63,000-acre post. In 2008, the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade was established. Its 4,000 soldiers tripled the number of forces based at the fort that could deploy to a war zone.

That includes engineers who are charged with ridding roads of the enemy's most effective weapon — the improvised explosive device, or IED.
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Vietnam Veteran Pays Respects at Soldier’s Funeral

Vietnam Veteran Pays Respects at Soldier’s Funeral

Reported by: Melissa Correa
September 28, 2011
MISSION - Victor Romo never met Staff Sgt. Estevan Altamirano, who was killed in Iraq. That didn't stop him from grieving.

He quietly crept into an Edinburg church. He witnessed true devotion to a son, father, husband and soldier.

“This morning I was thinking we were in the same steps because when I went to Vietnam, I was married. I had a wife,” says Romo.

Romo put himself in the shoes of Altamirano. He felt the grief and pain. With a simple gesture, Romo became connected.
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Fallen soldier’s cross stolen in break-in

Fallen soldier’s cross stolen in break-in
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 16, 2011 7:22:00 EDT
STOW, Ohio — The father of an Ohio soldier killed in Iraq said his son's gold cross chain was stolen from a display of mementos at the family's home.

Larry Large of Stow, near Akron, tells WJW-TV the cross was the only item taken during a break-in Wednesday. It was taken from a display of items including his son's medals and coffin flag.

Sgt. Bryan Large, 31, was killed in 2005 with two fellow paratroopers when a bomb exploded near their Humvee.
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Pennsylvania National Guard:3 killed, 5 wounded in Afghanistan

Three Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Killed in Action
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers were killed and five wounded Monday when an improvised explosive device detonated on their convoy outside of Bagram, Afghanistan.

Sgt. Edward Koehler, 47, of Lebanon, Sgt. Brian Mowery, 49, of Halifax, and Staff Sgt. Kenneth VanGiesen, 30, of Kane, were transporting supplies and equipment when they were killed in the same vehicle.

None of the five wounded soldiers sustained life-threatening injuries.

The soldiers were serving with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's, 131st Transportation Company, 213th Area Support Group, based in Williamstown and Philadelphia. The company is primarily in charge of convoys and convoy security.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of these brave young men who have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of this country," said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. "This tragic incident is a stark reminder of the dangers our troops face on a daily basis for the cause of freedom. We owe them our respect, our support and our gratitude."
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Three Pennsylvania National Guard Soldiers Killed

Governors order flags lowered for fallen soldiers

Gov. Rick Snyder orders flags lowered for Army sergeant today

A casket carrying the body of Army Staff Sgt. Ergin V. Osman is carried away from a charter plane by soldiers in uniform after arriving at Bishop International Airport in Flint, Mich. on Friday, June 3, 2011. Osman, 35, formerly of Harrison Township, was killed along with five other soldiers by an improvised explosive device on May 26. He was a member of the Army's 101st Airborne Ranger Pathfinders based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Gov. Rick Snyder has ordered U.S. flags throughout Michigan to be lowered to half-staff Monday. / The Flint Journal / AP PHOTO
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Gov. Rick Snyder orders flags lowered

Fly state flags at half-staff Tuesday

By Staff reports
Augusta Gazette
Posted Jun 05, 2011 @ 05:49 PM

Topeka, Kan. —
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has ordered flags in the State of Kansas to be flown at half-staff on Tuesday, June 7. pursuant to Executive Orders 10-12, in honor of Sergeant Thomas A. Bohall, 25, of Bel Aire, who died on May 26, 2011, in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
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Fly state flags at half-staff Tuesday

Memorial Day Service at Glen Haven Memorial Park, Winter Park FL

Memorial Day Service 2011 at Glen Haven Memorial Park, Winter Park FL

Bud Hedinger WFLA Master of Ceremony
Charles Haugubrooks, singer
Chaplain Dick Sauer





With history of how Memorial Day started by State Re-enactment Society

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863




Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.


Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.


We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.


But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.


It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

Second Inaugural Address
March 4, 1865
Fellow-Countrymen:


At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.


On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, urgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.


One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."


With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Living memorials honoring all wars, WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq by Winter Springs High School AJROTC


Lance Cpl. Kyle Davis USMC, back from Afghanistan two weeks before Osama was killed.

2 Fort Hood soldiers killed by Iraqi trainee

2 Hood soldiers shot by Iraqi trainee ID'd
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 18, 2011 8:25:37 EST
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has released the identities of two Fort Hood soldiers officials say were shot dead by an Iraqi soldier they were training.

A Pentagon statement issued Monday says 23-year-old Sgt. Michael P. Bartley of Barnhill, Ill., and 43-year-old Spc. Martin J. Lamar of Sacramento, Calif., died when the trainee shot them with small-arms fire Saturday in Mosul, Iraq.
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2 Hood soldiers shot by Iraqi trainee

Portraits of the Fallen

Portraits of the Fallen
An artist named Kaziah Hancock paints portraits of fallen soldiers free of charge for their families as part of Project Compassion. Video by KARE 11/ Minneapolis/ St. Paul.

She painted almost 250 so far. Why? Kaziah says "I don't get into the political crap. I just love freedom." and she loves them.

VA Takes a Hard Look at SGLI/VGLI Program

When you read this you need to think of something. It has been going on for a long time but no one was talking about it. No one was talking so no one tried to stop it. Now that some brave soul said this is wrong, things are starting to happen for other families. Now that Veterans for Common Sense and Paul Sullivan, along with other groups got involved, Congress and the VA are doing something about it.

VA Continues to Ensure and Protect Servicemembers', Survivors'

Life Insurance Benefits

VA Takes a Hard Look at SGLI/VGLI Program

WASHINGTON (September 14, 2010)- The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
has reviewed the account administered by Prudential that includes
Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and Veterans' Group Life
Insurance (VGLI) programs to ensure beneficiaries are protected, being
treated fairly, and accorded the utmost care and respect. VA is also
ensuring that benefits are delivered in a transparent way that clearly
outlines all available options.

Since 1965, VA has successfully delivered life insurance benefits to
survivors of our Nation's Servicemembers and Veterans.

"The most important thing we can do is ensure that beneficiaries have
options that are clear, competitive, and come at no personal cost during
a time of emotional stress," said Veterans Affairs Chief of Staff John
R. Gingrich. "Providing clear and concise options for the beneficiary is
a top priority."

VA will continue to provide a full explanation of terms up-front,
increase clarity of options and more actively promote current financial
counseling to assist in decision making. These efforts will further
enhance the transparency that will continue to ensure confidence in this
important program.

The department will provide better clarity of payment options by using
new documents that ask the beneficiary to choose one payment option,
including a lump sum check, or a lump sum Alliance Account (retained
asset account) that allows beneficiaries the option to immediately write
a check for the entire payment or any lesser amount. VA will also
continue to offer the option for payment in 36 monthly installments.

VA worked with beneficiaries, regulators, and subject matter experts to
determine appropriate improvements to provide beneficiaries all benefits
due under current life insurance programs to include Alliance Accounts
in a secure and timely manner.

"Prudential has agreed to implement these adjustments, and the
department will continue to carefully monitor this program to ensure
that Servicemembers' and Veterans' beneficiaries are well-protected,"
said Gingrich.

VA is also taking the following actions:

* All SGLI/VGLI related information, including frequently asked
questions, website information and handbooks will be modified to clearly
and completely explain all aspects of the Alliance Account and all
options available to the beneficiary.

* VA will require Prudential to conduct a follow up contact with
beneficiaries whose accounts remains open after six months to confirm
the beneficiary understands the terms of the account.

* VA will clearly designate the source of correspondence by
removing the SGLI seal from all checks, forms, and correspondence and
replacing it to show that it is from Prudential, with the subtitle of
"Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance".

* VA will identify additional opportunities to encourage
beneficiaries to use the free financial counseling service.

* VA will, in coordination with the Department of Defense (DoD),
improve support to Casualty Assistant Officers and Transition Assistance
Program (TAP) Personnel by helping to prepare additional training
materials and instruction.

SGLI provides group life insurance for the Uniformed Services, such as
Servicemembers on active duty, ready reservists, and members of the
National Guard, among others. More information on the SGLI/VGLI program
is also available at http://www.insurance.va.gov/sglisite/sgli/sgli.htm

VCS in the News: VA Made Secret Deal with Prudential; Families Lose Millions to Insurance Giant
Written by David Evans
Tuesday, 14 September 2010 00:16
VA secretly amended Prudential's contract, allowing it to withhold payments to survivors of fallen soldiers

September 13, 2010 (Bloomberg Markets Magazine) - The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs failed to inform 6 million soldiers and their families of an agreement enabling Prudential Financial Inc. to withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits for survivors of fallen service members, according to records made public through a Freedom of Information request.

The amendment to Prudential’s contract is the first document to show how VA officials sanctioned a payment practice that has spurred investigations by lawmakers and regulators. Since 1999, Prudential has used so-called retained-asset accounts which allow the company to withhold lump sum payments due to survivors and earn investment income on the money for itself.

The Sept. 1, 2009, amendment to Prudential’s contact with the VA ratified another unpublicized deal that had been struck between the insurer and the government 10 years earlier -- one that was never put into writing, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its November issue. This verbal agreement in 1999 provoked concern among top insurance officials of the agency, the documents released in the FOIA request show.
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VA Made Secret Deal with Prudential

Medal of Honor for Oviedo FL's Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller

White House: Medal of Honor for Green Beret

The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Sep 9, 2010 13:47:19 EDT

WASHINGTON — The White House said Thursday that President Obama will present a posthumous Medal of Honor to an Army sergeant from Pennsylvania.

Obama will present the medal to the parents of Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller on Oct. 6 at the White House, according to administration officials.

According to the White House, the Harrisburg, Pa., native, a resident of Oviedo, Fla., at the time of his death, performed heroically in Afghanistan on Jan. 25, 2008, by showing courage and valor when he sacrificed his own life to help the others.

Miller, 24, was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), out of Fort Bragg, N.C.
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Medal of Honor for Green Beret

Iraqi soldier kills 2 U.S. soldiers, wounds 9 more

Iraqi soldier kills 2 U.S. soldiers
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 7, 2010 4:08 p.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Iraq's Defense Ministry says Iraqi soldier shot Americans
Separate attack wounded another U.S. soldier, Iraqis, official says
In first attack, 9 also wounded inside an Iraqi army commando compound near Tuz
The attacker was shot and killed

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- An Iraqi soldier opened fire Tuesday on a group of U.S. soldiers in northern Iraq, killing two and wounding nine others, the Iraqi military said.

They are the first American deaths in Iraq since the U.S. combat mission officially ended last week.

The attack occurred inside an Iraqi army commando compound when the soldier, clad in an Iraqi army uniform, fired on the U.S. soldiers near the Salaheddin province city of Tuz, the U.S. military said. The attacker was shot and killed.
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Iraqi soldier kills 2 US soldiers

Five Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

Five Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan
NewsChannel5.com

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Five Fort Campbell soldiers have been killed in three separate incidents in Afghanistan over the past few days.

Private First Class Chad Derek Coleman, and
Private Adam Jacob Novak, both 20,
were killed on August 27 when a command-wired improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during convoy operations in the Paktiya province, Afghanistan.

Coleman was a Cavalry Scout; Novak was an infantryman. Both Coleman and Novak were assigned to B Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.

The Department of Defense reported that
Specialist James Robinson, 27,
died August 28 when insurgents attacked his Forward Operating Base in the Bermal district, Paktika province, Afghanistan.

Captain Ellery R. Wallace, 33, and
Private First Class Bryn T. Raver, 20,
died August 29 at Nangahar, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when their military vehicle was struck by rocket propelled grenade on August. 28.

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Five Fort Campbell Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

7 US troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting

7 US troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan's embattled southern and eastern regions, NATO said Sunday.

Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.

The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July's high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops.

Fighting is intensifying with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to bring the total number of international forces in Afghanistan to 120,000 — 100,000 of them American. Most of those new troops have been assigned to the southern insurgent strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces where major battles are fought almost daily as part of a gathering drive to push out the Taliban.
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7 US troops killed in latest Afghanistan fighting

Fort Campbell pays high price for missions in Afghanistan

Fort Campbell, Ky., pays steepening price in Afghanistan

By Chris Kenning, Louisville Courier-Journal
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — It's been a lethal summer for the Fort Campbell's 101st Airborne Division, which has lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan since March — including 33 in June and July. Nearly 400 have been wounded during that time, military officials said.

The latest losses, including two more last week, represent one of the division's bloodier periods in Afghanistan, where the fighting is increasing as President Obama's troop surge nears its peak.

By the time the 4th Brigade Combat Team deploys this month, the 101st Division's nearly 20,000 troops will represent 20% of the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, who are battling Taliban and insurgent strongholds in advance of Obama's planned withdrawal beginning in 2011.
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Fort Campbell

Tampa soldier honored with military-style procession

Tampa soldier honored with military-style procession; funeral is Saturday
By Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, August 19, 2010


BRANDON

One day in June, Annette Cuzzupe-Kirk popped into her car stereo a CD of songs her Army medic son gave her before he left for Afghanistan.

"Use this to remember me," was written on the front.

Cuzzupe-Kirk thought her son meant until he got back home.

But when she heard the lyrics, she quickly shut off the music.

"I just promised myself that I was not going to listen to it anymore unless I absolutely had to," she said.

She'll hear it again Friday night at a memorial service for her son, 23-year-old Paul O. Cuzzupe II, who died in combat on Aug. 8. The selections include Tom Petty's Free Falling, Jim Croce's I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song, and a track that made Mrs. Cuzzupe-Kirk wince: Thrice's Come All You Weary.

The Army flew his body home to Tampa on Wednesday, in a casket draped with an American flag.
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Tampa soldier honored with military style procession

State ban on protests at military funerals unconstitutional

I wonder how the judge would feel about free speech rights if he ended up forced to listen? Forced to see the signs? It is great to protect everyone's right to speak freely in this country, even people like Phelps because if someone tries to silence his voice, then we need to ask who would be next. What this does not mean is that someone else should be forced to hear any of it.

We can turn off a radio station we don't want to listen to, change the TV channel, not buy a newspaper or when we see protests, we have a choice to go another way to where we want to go. The families of fallen troops don't have the luxury. They can't just decide to not bury their family member or go someplace else. They should have the right to have their own constitutional rights protected as well. Forcing them to be victims of attack from someone else defends no ones rights.

Judge: State ban on protests at military funerals unconstitutional
By Bill Mears, CNN
August 17, 2010 7:22 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Federal judge tosses out Missouri ban on protests and picketing at military funerals
The law was passed in response to a protest by Westboro Baptist Church
The church members say they believe U.S. troop deaths are God's punishment
Washington (CNN) -- Missouri's tight restrictions on protests and picketing outside military funerals were tossed out by a federal judge Monday, over free speech concerns.

A small Kansas church had brought suit over its claimed right to loudly march outside the burials and memorial services of those killed in overseas conflicts. The state legislature had passed a law to keep members of the Topeka-based Westboro Baptist Church from demonstrating within 300 feet of such private services.

Church members, led by pastor Fred Phelps, believe God is punishing the United States for "the sin of homosexuality" through events including soldiers' deaths. Members have traveled the country, shouting at grieving family members at funerals and displaying such signs as "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "God Blew Up the Troops" and "AIDS Cures Fags."
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State ban on protests at military funerals

Radney Foster Angel's Flight

get some tissues

Heroes' stories told in leaked Wiki documents

A TALE OF WAR
Heroes' stories told in leaked documents
By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

With public information about the battle still sketchy, Cynthia Woodard could only imagine how her son died last fall as hundreds of insurgents swarmed over his combat outpost in Afghanistan.

The Northeast Philadelphia woman had searched an Army report and found many pages blank or covered with dashes and garbled characters for privacy or security reasons.

Nothing adequately described the attack that claimed her son, Spec. Michael Scusa, 22, of Villas, Cape May County, and seven comrades on Oct. 3, 2009 - one of the deadliest days of America's longest war.

Then, last week, for the first time, Woodard read a running narrative of computer messages typed by U.S. soldiers that pulled back the curtain on the desperate battle.

" . . . we are taking casiltys," wrote one of the soldiers in a frantic call for help filled with misspellings.
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Heroes stories told in leaked documents
linked from Stars & Stripes