Free Republic

Dorothy Oxendine presides over American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a national organization of women whose sons and daughters have died in military service to the nation. (Photo by Mark Abraham) AMERICAN IDENTITY With the Iraq War, a New Generation of Gold Star Mothers BY DELIA M. RIOS More stories by Delia M. Rios WASHINGTON -- As Dorothy Oxendine knows, the most dreaded words a parent can hear are "We regret to inform you ..." She lost her only son, Pfc. Willie F. Oxendine III, to a land mine in Vietnam on May 30, 1968. His death at age 21...

More than 1,000 people are gathered at the Biggs Army Airfield deployment facility this afternoon to pay tribute to the nine members of the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss who were killed in an ambush near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on March 23. Among those attending the ceremony are Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki along with Congressional leaders. Soldiers and civilians began filing into the deployment facility around 1:30 p.m. today. They steadily filled chairs facing a stage backdrop with a wall of blue fabric and a 20-foot tall american flag. At the front of the...

April 2, 2003 American, Captive for Week, Is Rescued by Special ForcesBy JOHN M. BRODER OHA, Qatar, Wednesday, April 2 — American Special Operations forces today rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch of the Army from Nasiriya, Iraq, where she had been held captive since March 23. Private Lynch, 19, of Palestine, W. Va., was found in the Saddam Hospital in Nasiriya, which was also being used as an Iraqi military facility, a Central Command official said. She was one of 15 members of the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, which was attacked by Iraqi forces after taking a wrong turn off...

Delivering tragic news to military families tough way to make a livingBy James V. WalkerWhen 1st Sgt. Terry Canty arrives at the doorstep, she's wearing her sharpest Army dress uniform, pressed and polished. She carries a letter, just paper, but heavy all the same."Normally, when they see me, the family is expecting to get bad news just because of how I'm dressed," Canty said.It's the moment every military family prays will never come, opening the front door to learn a loved one has been killed. But for the officers, like Canty, who bear the news, that moment comes all too...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.