Free Republic

I recently appeared on the November 11, 2003 episode of the Montel Williams show. The program featured guests who had lost loved ones in the war in Iraq. One of the guests, Kathy Dowdy, recalled hearing that her husband, 1st Sgt. Robert Dowdy, had been killed: "They found 11 shallow graves. One of the bodies was my husband. He was a first sergeant of 507th Main--Maintenance Unit. Couldn't ask for a better husband. Gave up his life for us. He took somebody else's place going to Iraq. He wasn't supposed to go to Kuwait at all," recalled Dowdy, tears streaming...

SAVING JESSICA LYNCH (NBC) - Benjamin King ("S.W.A.T.") has joined the cast of the upcoming Peacock telefilm. He will play 38-year-old Master Sgt. Robert James Dowdy, who, like Lynch, was with the 507th Ordnance Maintenance Co. based out of Fort Bliss, Texas. Dowdy was one of the soldiers who died when their convoy was ambushed March 23.

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...

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.

8 Bodies Found in Raid Were U.S. Soldiers .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Eight of the bodies found during the rescue of an American POW in Iraq this week were members of her ambushed Army maintenance unit, the Pentagon announced Saturday. The eight soldiers were with Pfc. Jessica Lynch when their unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. The U.S. commandos who freed Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriyah this week also found 11 bodies, nine of which were believed to be those of Americans. The nine bodies had been returned to a...

Relatives of Missing Soldiers Fear Worst By CHRIS ROBERTS .c The Associated Press FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) - Relatives of soldiers missing from the 507th Maintenance Company spent Wednesday fearing the worst after learning that 11 bodies - some of them believed to be Americans - had been found during the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital. ``With every day that passes, it just gets worse,'' said Amalia Estrella-Soto, mother of 18-year-old Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto of El Paso. ``It's another day without knowing anything.'' Her son and Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, were among 15 soldiers of...