Free Republic

<p>A month after his wife learned she was pregnant, 19-year-old Patrick O'Day shipped out to Iraq, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps who took pride in being rough and tough and always ready.</p> <p>Before he left, the excited young husband made sure to check on his health plan so it would accommodate the baby-to-be. In his daily letters, he playfully reminded his wife, Shauna, to see the doctor and eat something green every day.</p>

YELLOW RIBBON PICNICSANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA ____________________________________________________________________ NEWS RELEASE FREE REPUBLIC OF SONOMA COUNTY www.FreeRepublic.com FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: David Chu 543-8103, 838-1973 April 8, 2003 “YELLOW RIBBON PICNIC” SUPPORT OUR TROOPS,THEIR FAMILIES & THE FAMILY OFPATRICK O’DAY SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA—Free Republic of Sonoma County announced today that there will be a “Yellow Ribbon Picnic” on Sunday April 13 at Galvin Community Park in honor & support of the family of Patrick O’Day, all of our troops in Iraq and their families. “All proceeds from the picnic will go to the family of Patrick O’Day,” says David Chu of Free...

Funeral services for a Scottish soldier serving with the US Marines in Iraq, will be held in California. Lance Corporal Patrick O'Day died last month with three other Marines when their tank plunged off a bridge into the River Euphrates near Nasiriyah. O'Day was born in Scotland in 1983. His family moved to Santa Rosa in 1987. His funeral will take place on Saturday at Santa Rosa's Veterans Memorial Building. Graveside services with full military honours will follow at Santa Rosa Memorial Park. His widow, 19-year-old Shauna O'Day, is expecting the couple's first child in September. She said O'Day died...

ALONG ROUTE 8, Iraq -- The crew and the tank nicknamed ''Hermes'' disappeared just after midnight last Tuesday. It vanished, it seemed, in the dust and darkness just ahead of Marine Capt. Brendan Rodden. In his tank immediately behind, Rodden didn't realize the Hermes was gone until his unit had traveled five more miles -- after the column of M1A1 Abrams tanks from the 1st Tank Battalion turned away from an unfinished bridge and skirted west along the Euphrates River. They probably just got disoriented, Rodden thought, maybe mixed up with another unit. It was easy enough to get lost...

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.