Free Republic

Death, in the end, hovers over Frank Schaeffer's "Voices From the Front: Letters Home From America's Military Family." This is not a depressing book. Not at all. The letters are almost invariably uplifting, full of simple nobility and a certain kind of life-sustaining joy. But "Voices" is a book about war, and that inevitably means death -- killing the enemy, watching your countrymen being killed and contemplating the ever-present possibility of your own death. Love letters, camp-life updates, care-package requests, notes of appreciation or longing -- the business of killing or being killed adds meaning to every communication in the...

The moment Joe Childers saw the legs of a US marine officer through the screen panel of the front door he knew his son Shane was dead.With a sense of dread Mr Childers and his wife, Judy, had heard on television that a marine lieutenant had been killed in the first hours of the Iraq war.Then the officer arrived to bring them the news."All I saw was his shoes and about that much red stripe the side of his trousers," said Mr Childers haltingly, his hands six inches apart. "I knew even before they knocked."I knew he was likely to...

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...

The first combat casaulty of the war, Marine LT Shane Childres was laid to rest in Powell, Wyoming yesterday. 1,500 people turned out.

Hundreds attended a brief but emotional funeral service Tuesday for a Marine who was one of the first American combat casualties in the war in Iraq. Therrel Shane Childers, 30, died March 21 after being shot in the abdomen in an assault on a pumping station in Iraq. Known as Shane, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Childers was an enlisted Marine who won a commission as a second lieutenant. The 1991 Gulf War veteran was promoted posthumously to first lieutenant. Friends and relatives say Childers was a born leader, serious...

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.

10 U.S. Soldiers Hurt In Grenade Attack March 22, 2003 Ten U.S. soldiers were injured, six or seven of them seriously, in a grenade and small arms attack at Camp Pennsylvania in northern Kuwait, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann, who is traveling with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. Strassmann said the grenades were rolled into two commanders' tents at the camp. When officers ran from the tents, they were hit by small arms fire. "From our reports it appears that a terrorist penetrated Camp Pennsylvania, one or more terrorists threw two hand grenades into a tent," said George...