Missing Contractor in Iraq Baffles Kin

AP ^ | 10/9/04 | BEVERLEY WANG

[TexKat]

CONCORD, N.H. - In the six months since truck driver William Bradley disappeared in Iraq, his relatives say they're frustrated by their countless efforts to find out what happened to him.

"I haven't heard one thing," Bradley's sister, Donna Cureton, said from her home in Carlsbad, N.M. "My phone bill looks like the national debt, but nobody will talk to you."

Bradley, 50, of Chesterfield, went missing April 9, when insurgents attacked his fuel convoy outside Baghdad. Two others in the convoy — Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin of Ohio, and Timothy Bell of Mobile, Ala., who like Bradley worked for a subsidiary of energy giant Halliburton Co. — are also still missing. Thomas Hamill of Macon, Miss., managed to escape the Iraqis who captured him.

Bradley's son, Jackson Bradley, is not commenting on the search for his father, Cureton said. Attempts to call Jackson Bradley were unsuccessful. As for Cureton, she gave up calling Halliburton and the Defense Department for updates.

"Since I'm not a wife or child they seem to think I'm not entitled to any news," she said.

Halliburton too would like more news about Bradley and Bell, but details are limited because the search is being conducted by the military in an active combat area, said spokeswoman Wendy Hall. Forty-eight Halliburton employees have died in Kuwait and Iraq since fighting began.

"We wish we could help with more information, but we don't have it," Hall said, adding the men's names are included in President Bush's daily briefing, "so their situation is known at the highest level of our government."

Bradley, who has an outgoing personality and a passion for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, spoke to his sister on his last night in the United States.

"I told him, 'Don't go. If you get in any kind of trouble, our government's not going to help,' "Cureton recalled. "He said well, he had signed the contract to go, he gave his word to go and he wanted to see the country and meet the people."

Cureton said Bradley, who spent four years in the Marines, told her he planned to use some of his money to go on a bike trip through Europe. On Sunday, members of Bradley's New Hampshire bike club, plan to pass out magnetic POW-MIA ribbons, which they will display on their bikes in his honor.

"He was going to go France, places like that," she said. "Take his bike and go."

According to friends, Bradley left New Hampshire in February, traveling to Wichita, Kan., where he left his Harley with his son for safekeeping. He then headed to Houston-based Halliburton. His group of contractors arrived in Kuwait on March 14. Less than a month later, Bradley's convoy was ambushed in Iraq.

Friends said Bradley's decision to go to Iraq was another instance of his free spirit and curiosity.

"About every two years he would take off and he would go," said Suzanne Behringer, 46, of Galveston, Texas, who said she is Bradley's common-law wife.

"I begged him not to go ... because it was just so volatile," she said. "He was going over there he said for adventure and to rebuild the country."

After the attack, Behringer said Halliburton asked her if Bradley had any reason to stay in Iraq. She could only think of one: "All I could say to them was, 'Is there a Harley-Davidson T-shirt shop?' It'd be the only reason he would stop, I swear to God."

Behringer and Bradley met in 1995. Although they split in 2001, Behringer said the two stayed in touch, even after he moved to New Hampshire and began another relationship.

Behringer also said calls she made to get updates on the search were useless.

"Nobody says anything, nobody knows anything and that's including Halliburton and the Army and the Department of Defense," she said. "They say they're looking for him but they won't say where."

This is little comfort to Wilma Procter, Bradley's girlfriend. "I check with them all the time. So far there is no official military report on him," she said. "I am aware of every single day that I do not speak with him."

Those close to Bradley say the combination of no news and video of hostage beheadings has them wishing for closure.

"I get really antsy when they go to showing these guys getting their heads chopped off," Cureton said. She believes her brother is dead, even though his body has not been found.

"You get a little feeling," she said. "I'm hoping I'm wrong."

[JudyB1938]

Cureton said Bradley, who spent four years in the Marines, told her he planned to use some of his money to go on a bike trip through Europe. On Sunday, members of Bradley's New Hampshire bike club, plan to pass out magnetic POW-MIA ribbons, which they will display on their bikes in his honor.