Family mourns a fallen soldier ("Our boy Justin, God and country...")

It had all the makings of a Super Bowl party -- beer, pretzels and rowdy football fans.

But when Beyonce Knowles sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" before kickoff Sunday night, guests at Bill and Lisa Scott's Bellevue home had one person on their minds -- fallen soldier Justin Scott.

"Our boy Justin, God and country," said his uncle, Brian Scott, as a dozen family members and friends toasted after the national anthem.

U.S. Army Sgt. Justin Scott, 22, died Thursday afternoon in an explosion in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Scott, a member of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y., was working to destroy a munitions cache in a village outside Kabul.

Since the family learned about Scott's death late Thursday night, his stepmother said, Scott's friends from high school have been great to her and her husband. "They all are my strength," she said.

The group, which was divided on who to cheer for -- Carolina Panthers or New England Patriots -- crammed into the tiny living room on Foote Avenue.

Signs of Scott were everywhere, from two photos of him on the mantel to his dad's guitar case, which had "bin Laden sucks" and "God Bless America" stickers on it.

As the otherwise rowdy fans sat quietly during the national anthem, friend Greg Duell, 21, glanced up at Justin's Army photo and then looked away.

After the song, Justin's best friend, Mike Ollberding, stood up and embraced Justin's little sister, Samantha, 13.

Two large baskets of red and white carnations from Bellevue High School, his alma mater, sat on a desk around one of the family's favorite pictures of Justin as he kayaked down the East Fork of the Little Miami River during his senior year.

Mrs. Scott said she has received calls from strangers who have children serving in the military, offering their condolences.

And, state Sen. Katie Stine, R-Fort Thomas, and state Rep. Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, plan to introduce a resolution next week honoring Northern Ken-tucky's first military fatality in the war on terror. "I was just really struck with what heartache these folks must be exper-iencing right now," Stine said.

Sunday afternoon, the Scott family shared photos and memories of Justin with each other. They re-read his letters from Afghanistan and watched a home video of Scott and his father and two of Scott's friends in a late-night jam session.

Mrs. Scott, with a huge grin on her face, held the remote control in one hand and a tissue in the other as she watched her husband play the guitar and Scott sing Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here" in the video, which was shot last February during Scott's leave from duty.

"He is a spitting image of his father," she said. "Unless you knew Justin, there is nothing we can show or tell you that is going to do justice to him."

Scott had been in Afghanistan for 1½ years. Before that, he served two years in Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Mrs. Scott said he considered continuing his Army career but wanted to focus on marrying his fiancée, Kristen Menkhaus, 21, of Villa Hills, and possibly becoming a Northern Kentucky firefighter.

When Scott called a couple weeks ago, he asked her to order Valentine's Day flowers for Menkhaus, who is studying to be a nurse.

Yet another Patriot falls, defending us all.

This "war" is too comfortable. No one need miss one movie, vacation, or luxury, let alone even consider the notion of "rationing", as civilians did in WWII. Few Americans have sons or husbands (or daughters) at risk. The greatest burden of this war is being borne by families like the Scott family; God Bless them all.

Not that I'd rather see more deaths, or more pain and suffering. That's precisely what this young man served and died to prevent.

With every Soldier, Airman, Marine, or Sailor killed, it just crushes my heart. We're next to Camp Pendleton, so we know many who have gone, returned, and some who are on their way out again. We know a few who have fallen, or at least we feel we do, when their families are in our very neighborhoods. We know many, many in our Community, Little League and Boy Scout leader-fathers, church members and some church leaders, as well as all those very, very young men. They've sacrificed and put it all on the line for America.

I wonder of our sense of burden here is felt the same way across the country, or is it just San Diego county, which seems to have contributed so many men to the war effort, which feels this burden.

Again, God Bless this man's family, his fiancee, and friends who have lost so much, for me and for you.

SFS

Thank you, veronica.
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Scott had been in Afghanistan for 1½ years. Before that, he served two years in Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Mrs. Scott said he considered continuing his Army career but wanted to focus on marrying his fiancée, Kristen Menkhaus, 21, of Villa Hills, and possibly becoming a Northern Kentucky firefighter.

The couple was set to wed in July.

"He was so in love with her," Mrs. Scott said.

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     click for larger image
        Sgt. Justin Scott
      (WCPO/WCPO.com)

A Soldier's Prayer

Dear Lord, comfort those who mourn, heal our wounded, bless

and protect our Soldiers and civilians serving in harm's way.

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Soldier's promising life ends in Afghanistan blast / Rio Vista mourns its 'best, brightest'

Adam Kinser, a U.S. soldier who was killed in a munitions accident in Afghanistan, is pictured with his wife, Tiffany, whom he married in April. Photo courtesy of the Kinser family

Army Spc. Adam Kinser's hitch in Afghanistan was up in a month, and his family expected him home three weeks before his first child was due to be born.

Every week, his wife Tiffany, whom he married last April two weeks before shipping out, had visited Kinser's parents in Rio Vista, and they e-mailed him photos of her expanding waistline. The 21-year-old had already named his son: Aydn Noah Kinser.

"It was all so perfect, the timing in how it was going to work out," Adam Kinser's father, Paul, said Saturday. His voice trailed off; Adam Kinser will never see his son.

On Saturday, U.S. military officials confirmed that the arms dump blast that killed Kinser and seven other soldiers Thursday appears to have been an accident. The soldiers were destroying rifle ammunition and mortar rounds when one or more detonated.

Military officials said the accident, which occurred 90 miles west of Kabul in Ghazni, was their worst one-time loss of life among soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. Since U.S. forces landed there in late 2001, 107 American service members have died, 37 in combat.

Flags remained at half-staff Saturday in the tightly knit Solano County town of Rio Vista, where 4,571 residents live 65 miles northeast of San Francisco.

Final exams and an evening basketball game were canceled Friday night at 400-student Rio Vista High School, where Kinser was a four-year-honor student and quarterbacked the football team for three years.

"Nobody wanted to be there. Everybody was crying," said Dan Mahoney, a teacher there who coached Kinser on the football team. "Part of this (reaction) is living in a small town, and part of it Adam. He was the kind of kid I'd want my daughter to marry."

Born in Valencia (Los Angeles County), Kinser moved with his family to Rio Vista in 1988, where they opened the Pizza Factory restaurant. Kinser grew up at the eatery, starting out as a dishwasher as a teenager and eventually managing it.

As he entered his senior year of high school, his father encouraged him to check out the military reserves. Not only would it help pay for college, but the elder Kinser believed it would be a formative experience.

"We thought that he couldn't be in a safer place," his father said. "Then Sept. 11 happened when he was halfway through boot camp."

After boot camp training, Kinser returned to California as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve, got a job as a sales representative for a lumber company and moved into his own place. Life was in "a good groove," his father said, when he was called to active duty. He married Tiffany April 4, then left.

"He never complained about the conditions there. Even when he was called up (to active duty), he said, 'If that's God's calling, then I'll be happy to fight,' " said his father, who describes the family as devout Christians.

When he returned home on a two-week leave after Thanksgiving, Kinser saw a sonogram of his child and felt the baby kick in Tiffany's womb. He visited his old high school and described Afghan culture to students. Now a strapping 6-foot, 205-pounds, his former coach Mahoney said, "He returned a man."

But all that promise disappeared when uniformed military officers appeared on the Kinser's doorstep at 12:30 a.m. Friday. By Saturday, members of Kinser's church were moving his pregnant widow from Sacramento to Rio Vista, where she can be closer to family.

"He was one of our best and brightest," said Rio Vista Mayor Marci Coglianese. A memorial service is planned for Wednesday in the high school gym, the only place big enough to hold everybody who wants to honor Kinser.

Tiffany Kinser told her father-in-law that she's decided to honor her late husband in a permanent way: She's going to change their son's name to Adam.

The family requests donations to the Adam Kinser Memorial Fund at the Bank of Rio Vista, which will be a scholarship fund for his child.

E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object.cgi?object=/chronicle/pictures/2004/02/01/ba_kinser01.jpg&paper=chronicle&file=MNGTG4MK7A1.DTL&directory=/chronicle/a/2004/02/01&type=news

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8 Worst fears realized for soldier's family ~ Army Sergeant First Class Curtis Mancini, 43 ~ one of our eight US Soldier who died Jan. 29, Ghazni, Afghanistan ~ Boston Globe | 2/01/04 | Jack Hagel

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