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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...

Miyuki Cawley, the wife of U.S. Marine Staff Sgt James Cawley, holds the flag from her husband's casket in her lap during graveside services at the Roy City Cemetery Thursday, April 10, 2003 in Roy, Utah. Cawley died March 29, 2003 while serving in Iraq and also was a member of the Salt Lake City police force. Bishop Jaime Soto is shown Friday, April 11, 2003, at St. Joaquim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, Calif., at the funeral of U.S. Marine Cpl. Jose A. Garibay, shown in foreground. Garibay was killed March 23, 2003, after encountering Iraqi troops near...

Before I became a radio talk show host and television news commentator, I was a talk show guest. Once, while on a top rated talk show, the show host blithely insulted me with a question "super Americans" always ask of people born outside the United States but, of course, forget to ask the Timothy McVeighs of the country. It is a question no one asks of Irish or Italian or British or Canadian Americans. It seems the question is reserved for Hispanics and people who might have some affinity for Israel. "If Mexico (the country of my birth) and the...

<p>Two Marines killed in Iraq have now been awarded citizenship posthumously. Surprised that foreign nationals are serving in the U.S. military, and even doing the fighting and the dying? You shouldn't be.</p> <p>Jose Gutierrez of Guatemala (profiled here1) and Jose Angel Garibay of Mexico, both from the Los Angeles area, were killed in the opening days of the war. Shortly before his death, Corporal Garibay wrote a letter to a former high school teacher explaining why he was willing to go to war: "I want to defend the country I plan to become a citizen of."</p>

<p>LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. (AP) - The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services has approved posthumous citizenship for two fallen Marines from Southern California, Cpl. Jose Angel Garibay and Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, both killed in combat in Iraq. The new bureau's acting director, Eduardo Aguire, is expected to sign their certificates of naturalization on Wednesday in Laguna Niguel, bureau spokesman Ron Rogers said Tuesday.</p>

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.

Pentagon identifies 7 Marines killed in Iraq WASHINGTON, March 25 (Reuters) - The Defense Department on Tuesday identified seven U.S. Marines killed in a firefight near the southern city of Nassiriya on Sunday, raising to 18 the total number of confirmed U.S. casualties in the Iraq war. The Pentagon named those killed as Sgt. Michael Blitz, 31, of Ventura, California; Lance Cpl. David Fribley, 26, of Lee, Florida; Cpl. Jose Garibay, 21, of Orange, California; Cpl. Jorge Gonzalez, 20, of Los Angeles; Staff Sgt. Phillip Jordan, 42, of Brazoria, Texas; 2nd Lt. Frederick Pokorney Jr., 31, of Nye, Nevada; and...