Names, Stories, and Pictures of the Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Wire Reports | 3/22/03 | Wire Reports

[Diddle E. Squat]

Let's update this thread as names are released. Their ultimate sacrifice for others and in service of our country should not be forgotten. We will forever be in debt to them, and lift prayers for comfort for their families on their loss.

[satchmodog9]

God bless them and anyone willing to die on their feet than live on their knees. They did not die for nothing. A just cause is worth loss. It makes the action valid and gives it a soul and human touch. People will remember the Americans and Brits for their sacrifice.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Capt. Ryan Beaupre

[Diddle E. Squat]

Maj. Jay Aubin

[Joe 6-pack]

To our fallen comrades...

[Diddle E. Squat]

Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey

[amom]

Thanks for this thread.

I was watching the news earlier and the mother of Brian Kennedy was being interviewed. Some of what she said about Brian stuck with me. “Brian felt he had a job to do and he was going to do it. He was very proud to do it…I was really lucky to know Brian for so long…he was really really fun to know…loved to laugh…loved to enjoy life…he‘d come home and take off his Marine boots and put on his flip flops…He died for all of us”

[Diddle E. Squat]

Thanks for your post. That is the kind of info and memories that can help this thread to commemorate these brave warriors who died for others.

[Diddle E. Squat]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/081/metro/Maine_town_remembers_boy_who_grew_up_flying+.shtml

Maine town remembers boy who grew up flying


By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff, 3/22/2003

KOWHEGAN, Maine - Major Jay Aubin wanted little else from the time he was a boy soaring in the bush planes his father piloted over the wilds of Maine.

Flying was a singular dream, one that would lead the Skowhegan native to enlist in the military and ultimately to the sandy stretches of Kuwait, where he died Friday in a helicopter crash.

Aubin, a 36-year-old husband and father of two, was among four Marines and eight British commandos killed in a helicopter crash 9 miles from the Iraqi border, the first allied casualties of the war that has since claimed more US lives.

Among the American fatalities in the crash was Corporal Brian Kennedy, who grew up in the Chicago suburb of Glenview but whose mother and stepfather have made their home in coastal Maine for five years.

Authorities have said there was no hostile fire on the CH-46 Sea Knight chopper and the cause of the crash is under investigation, though indications suggest it was an accident.

For a man like Aubin who believed wholly that war in Iraq was right and necessary, his death so early in the conflict and without confrontation with the enemy seemed a painful irony to his family.

''He had ideals and he was going to put his life on the line for the world,'' said his stepmother, Carol Aubin of Bangs, Texas. ''The sad fact is that war was just starting - we were just 23 hours into it.''

''In the end,'' she said ruefully, ''maybe it will be over in two or three days.''

The deaths of two men with ties to Maine rippled through the state, echoing earlier news during the war in Afghanistan when Air Force Master Sergeant Evander Earl Andrews, a native of the central Maine town of Solon, was the first US soldier to die in the campaign against terrorists that opened in October 2001.

In Skowhegan, a town of nearly 9,000 where Jay Aubin played high school football and baseball and was voted student of the year as a senior by teachers, churches made calls early yesterday asking parishioners to pray for his family, a well-known clan with French-Canadian roots whose Sunday night dinners each week rank on the order of Thanksgiving feasts. Many of Aubin's relatives still live in Skowhegan, while his mother lives in the nearby town of Winslow.

Paula Dore said Aubin's aunt, a co-worker, had been talking about her nephew all week, saying she was so proud of him being overseas.

''Your heart breaks when you hear about the casualties,'' Dore said. ''But when it is one of you hometown boys, it is unbelievable.''

Word of the fatal crash reached Aubin's family first through morbid guesswork. They saw news reports on television of a downed helicopter in Kuwait, the type they knew Aubin flew.

''We were like, `What are the odds?''' said his aunt, Lynn Aubuchon of Madison, a neighboring town. ''But it was his.''

Family members describe Aubin, the eldest of three boys whose cheeks dimpled deeply when he smiled, as a straight arrow, the sort who never drank or smoked, who pursued a plan seemingly mapped from birth.

''He loved aviation,'' said his father, Thomas Aubin, who piloted planes out of Greenville, ferrying forestry workers to remote spots. He often strapped his son into the seat beside him from the time the boy was 2.

He recalled his son sitting on the tires of airplanes he was trying to sell, just 4 or 5 years old, doing little good for the cause as he ticked off the planes' problems to potential buyers.

''I had to tell him, `Don't tell them everything that's wrong with the airplane,''' said Aubin, who moved with his wife to Bangs, about 75 miles south of Abilene, a few years back. ''He knew about as much about planes as any guy many times his age.''

When Jay Aubin graduated from high school in Skowhegan, he wanted to go to college, but money was short and the military beckoned.

He enlisted in the Marines and served four years, based in California, where he worked as a helicopter mechanic. There he met his wife, Rhonda, a fellow Marine. The pair had two children, Alecia, who is 10, and Nathan, 7.

Aubin returned to Maine for school, graduating from Southern Maine Technical College in South Portland with an associate's degree in machine tool technology, then earning his bachelor's degree from the University of Southern Maine in Portland in 1993.

At the end of schooling, without hesitation, he reenlisted in the Marines, this time as an officer headed to flight school in Pensacola, Fla., family members said.

''He was so delighted,'' said his uncle, Peter Willette. ''When he left the Marines to go to school, he was so lost. Being in the military was a dream that he stepped into with open arms.''

Aubin would go on to serve in Japan, flying helicopters into East Timor during the political unrest there, his father said. He came home to Maine this past summer and spent several weeks with his family before moving West to train pilots in Yuma, Ariz.

Shortly before shipping out to Kuwait earlier this year, Aubin told family members that he'd been tapped to pilot the helicopter used by President Bush.

But first, he said, there was another mission he had been called to answer.

''He said it was real important, and he had to go,'' said Willette. ''He was ready and energized. He said it was something that had to be done.''

Globe correspondent Meadow Rue Merrill contributed to this report.

[amom]

You are welcome.

NotJustAnotherPrettyFace posted this on another thread earlier

Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of St. Anne, Ill., and Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, a Glenview native living in Houston, were among the 12 American and British troops killed Thursday in a military helicopter crash in Kuwait about nine miles from the Iraqi border.

When the family dog began barking before dawn Friday, Mark Beaupre, Ryan Beaupre's father, said he knew his oldest son was dead. A delegation of Marines at his door confirmed his fear.

St. Anne, IL is a small town (around pop. 1200) near Kankakee - about 30 miles south of Chicago. Glenview, IL is a northern suburb of Chicago and is about 10 miles NNE of O'Hare Airport.

These men will be missed. They served their country with honor.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/871902/posts

[amom]

V

[Diddle E. Squat]

Correction to post #7, which has the wrong picture.

Cpl. Brian Kennedy

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[amom]

BREAKING ON FOX: 4 3ID Soldiers Not Dead: But Wounded
Posted on 03/22/2003 12:05 PM PST by Gamecock
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/872408/posts

[Diddle E. Squat]

It was Jay Aubin's mother who called into NBC yesterday and was interviewed by Tom Brokaw. Few who saw it will forget it.


http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/peter_carlin/index.ssf?/base/living/1048164908318790.xml

On NBC, anchor Tom Brokaw spoke on the telephone to Nancy Chamberlin of Winslow, Maine. Her son, Marine Capt. Jay Aubin, was one of the first American soldiers to die in the conflict.

Brokaw greeted her gently, telling her how hard it must be on this, the darkest day of her life. She thanked him, sounding sad but remarkably composed. Her strength, it seemed, did something to Brokaw.

"The country deserves to know about Jay," he said, his voice starting to fray.

So she spoke, recalling how she couldn't afford to send her son to college, so he signed up for the Marines and fell in love with the service. "When he left he reminded me that . . . if he died he would die doing what he absolutely loved and believed in."

Brokaw was sitting with four of NBC's military analysts, a star-spangled array of retired generals and admirals. They're tough guys, accustomed to talking about war in terms of strategy, ordnance and duty. But the words of this woman, her courage in the face of tragedy, shattered their steel. Or maybe it just revealed their molten core.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey wept openly, dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief. Lt. Gen. Michael Short, on the other side of the desk, also cried, while Adm. Dennis McGinn stared grimly forward, his eyes dark and pained.

Speaking directly to Brokaw, Chamberlin said she admired all he and his TV news colleagues were doing to bring news of the war home to America.

"But for mothers and wives it's murder," she said. "It's heartbreak. We can't leave the TV, because with every tank and every helicopter, you're thinking: Is that my son?"

Was she criticizing the blanket coverage? Or just expressing the helplessness of being half a world away from a child in mortal danger? It wasn't clear. It didn't matter.

"I just need you to be aware that . . . there are moms, dads and wives out there suffering because of this. That's all. That's why I'm doing this."

After she hung up, Brokaw and his team of military brass tried to compose themselves. When he could speak again, Brokaw looked into the camera and spoke directly to his audience.

"Just because you don't have someone directly involved doesn't mean you're not involved," he said. "No matter how you feel about how we got involved in this war, we all have obligations to each other."

[Diddle E. Squat]

Thanks for the good news. I believe that report is in reference to the 4 soldiers(not identified) reported killed in S. Central Iraq this morning.

[freepersup]

How about including all coalition casualties ?

8 Brits aboard the Royal Navy's UH 46 Sea Knight

2 US Marines KIA ground casualties (separate engagements)

1 US Naval Officer presumed KIA, aboard the lost Royal Navy's helicopter (crashed into second UK helo), 6 Brits perish, all lost at sea

1 US soldier with the 3RD Inf Div KIA

4 US armed forces personnel KIA, aboard Humvees hit by RPG's

____________________________________________________________

I'll see if I can locate the names and other pertinent details regarding these OIF combat casualties.

[freepersup]

per post # 15, 4 US personnel reported KIA, now reported as wounded,

repeat, 4 US personnel wounded, not KIA