Posted on 03/03/2005 10:25:18 AM PST by SmithL
An Army soldier with Cocke County ties has died in Iraq, a loss that leaves his mother bitterly critical of the U.S.-led operation.
"He was there two weeks and three days I feel like his life was wasted," Patricia Brady said Wednesday of Pfc. Daniel Anderson, who died Sunday. "A lot of people say he's a hero, but to me his life was wasted along with many others."
Brady, who lives in the Hartford community, said she and her son had spoken at length about his decision first to join the Army and then to serve in Iraq.
"I am very much a pacifist," she said. "Danny knew this, but it was his decision."
Anderson was so fond of life as a soldier he returned to his high school in Texas to speak to students about a military career, according to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Anderson, who had visited his family in Cocke County and North Carolina several times over the past several years, was killed in a shootout at a Baghdad checkpoint.
Brady said a casualty assistance officer said her son was manning the checkpoint when a car with five occupants tried to speed through.
Gunfire erupted and Anderson was killed.
The 29-year-old Texas native was a member of the 3rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart, Ga. according to the Caller-Times.
More than 1,500 U.S. service personnel have died since the conflict began almost two years ago.
Anderson leaves behind a wife, a 6-year-old stepson and a 6-month-old son, Noah.
"She isn't taking it very well," Brady said of her daughter-in-law. "I've only talked to her once, but I know it's been very difficult for her."
Brady said her son's body is in transit from the Middle East and that the funeral will take place in his native Corpus Christi.
For Brady, the funeral will be one final reminder of her view of war.
"We've been fighting war for how many thousands of years for peace and look where we are," she said. "We have to learn how to get along."
PING
Mother needs to be horse whipped.
We're reading it differently. I'm assuming that she means she's only spoken to her once since her son's death.
Hey Mom, no one made him join, remember? He was a soldier and he died a soldiers death. He knew what he was doing when he joined.
You need to be horsewhipped for even suggesting it.
She's in the greatest possible emotional pain imaginable. Give mom a break, and if you pray, pray that she heals.
If you reread my #22 you'll see that we are reading it the same way. It just seems strange to me that she has only spoken to her daughter-in-law once since her son's death. If my husband had died while my mother-in-law was alive, she would have called me every day.
Does this mean that after he joined against her wishes, that when he received deployment orders, she then tried to talk him into deserting...uh, (excuse me while I switch to Libspeak mode) "resisting illegal deployment to an illegal war against the peace loving freedom fighters of Occupied Iraq"?
Second thought, I think deserting is the proper term for what she had in mind for him.
Glad he made us proud and disappointed Mommy, rather than the other way around.
Thank you for your service and ultimate sacrifice, Pfc. Daniel Anderson. Rest in peace.
Sadness, because our country and his family will be forever without his presence; Gratitude that such men are willing to make such a sacrifice on my behalf, and the benefit of all who dwell in our country; and wonder why it is that our very best have to pay that price. But I guess it's their willingness to pay that price that MAKES them our best.
Wasted life? Hardly.
Very True! Its so sad that he, being willing to risk (and loose) his life for the U.S of A. I find it so hard to believe that she could dishonor his own wishes to protect and serve by slandering her own child. She should be proud, reguardless of her views on this war. I'd hate to see what she would put on his tomb stone. "Here are the remains of my son, who wasted his life?"
In time maybe we can get some pigs to fly over her house.
We still must try. We owe it to the fallen.
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