Locke_rpr
09-13-2007, 02:57 AM
Whether or not it is, it is still a sad needless loss. We all feel their families loss.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=272174
Two who wrote article against war are killed
By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
Family and friends confirmed Wednesday the identities of four of the seven soldiers killed in a truck accident in Iraq on Monday. The dead include two paratroopers who helped write an opinion piece critical of U.S. war policy that was published in the New York Times.
Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, Sgt. Omar Mora, Spc. Ari D. Brown-Weeks and Spc. Nick Patterson — all reportedly from the 1st Battalion of the 73rd Cavalry Regiment — were returning to their base in western Baghdad when their armored 5-ton truck blew a tire.
The truck rolled off an overpass and fell more than 30 feet to the road below, military officials said Tuesday.
The wreck killed seven paratroopers and wounded 10 others. Three of the wounded paratroopers are in serious condition, officials said.
In August, Gray and Mora helped write the opinion piece that questioned the Iraq war strategy.
“To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched,” the paratroopers wrote.
They said that the only solution was withdrawal.
“In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal,” they wrote.
The editorial sparked a heated debate between political pundits. Gen. David Petraeus was even questioned about its conclusions this week on Capitol Hill.
Richard Gray, father of Staff Sgt. Yance Gray, told the Editor & Publisher Web site Wednesday that he agreed with the column.
His son joined the Army in 2000 and served in Afghanistan before deploying to Iraq in January.
“He was not in any way anti-military,” Richard Gray said. “But he wasn’t somebody to follow along blindly.”
Like Gray, Mora was a veteran of multiple combat deployments. This was his second deployment to Iraq.
A native of Ecuador, he’d just become a U.S. citizen.
“He don’t think twice about going to Iraq to do his duty,” his mother, Olga Capetillo, told the Daily News in Galveston.
Capetillo said Mora was increasingly depressed about the war in Iraq.
“I told him God is going to take care of him and take him home,” she told the paper Tuesday. “But yesterday is the darkest day for me.”
Athletes
The other two soldiers who have been identified — Brown-Weeks and Patterson — were remembered Wednesday as outgoing athletes.
Brown-Weeks liked baseball and played varsity soccer at his high school in western Massachusetts.
“He always had a smile on his face,” Justin Duncan, Brown-Weeks’ former coach and history teacher, told The Recorder in Greenfield, Mass.
Brown-Weeks also liked visiting Boston and New York and enjoyed poetry, said his father, Jon Weeks.
Patterson played point guard for the Rochester High Zebras and played second base on the baseball team.
Former teachers told the local paper and television stations in Rochester, Ind., a town near South Bend, that Patterson had a zest for life.
Rob Malchow, a former teacher of Patterson’s, said he was a leader on and off the playing field.
“You could tease him and he would tease you back in a respectful manner, and you know that’s the kind of kid you want to teach and work with whether it was in the classroom or on the court,” Malchow said. “And so I got to experience a little of both.”
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=272174
Two who wrote article against war are killed
By Kevin Maurer
Staff writer
Family and friends confirmed Wednesday the identities of four of the seven soldiers killed in a truck accident in Iraq on Monday. The dead include two paratroopers who helped write an opinion piece critical of U.S. war policy that was published in the New York Times.
Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, Sgt. Omar Mora, Spc. Ari D. Brown-Weeks and Spc. Nick Patterson — all reportedly from the 1st Battalion of the 73rd Cavalry Regiment — were returning to their base in western Baghdad when their armored 5-ton truck blew a tire.
The truck rolled off an overpass and fell more than 30 feet to the road below, military officials said Tuesday.
The wreck killed seven paratroopers and wounded 10 others. Three of the wounded paratroopers are in serious condition, officials said.
In August, Gray and Mora helped write the opinion piece that questioned the Iraq war strategy.
“To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched,” the paratroopers wrote.
They said that the only solution was withdrawal.
“In the end, we need to recognize that our presence may have released Iraqis from the grip of a tyrant, but that it has also robbed them of their self-respect. They will soon realize that the best way to regain dignity is to call us what we are — an army of occupation — and force our withdrawal,” they wrote.
The editorial sparked a heated debate between political pundits. Gen. David Petraeus was even questioned about its conclusions this week on Capitol Hill.
Richard Gray, father of Staff Sgt. Yance Gray, told the Editor & Publisher Web site Wednesday that he agreed with the column.
His son joined the Army in 2000 and served in Afghanistan before deploying to Iraq in January.
“He was not in any way anti-military,” Richard Gray said. “But he wasn’t somebody to follow along blindly.”
Like Gray, Mora was a veteran of multiple combat deployments. This was his second deployment to Iraq.
A native of Ecuador, he’d just become a U.S. citizen.
“He don’t think twice about going to Iraq to do his duty,” his mother, Olga Capetillo, told the Daily News in Galveston.
Capetillo said Mora was increasingly depressed about the war in Iraq.
“I told him God is going to take care of him and take him home,” she told the paper Tuesday. “But yesterday is the darkest day for me.”
Athletes
The other two soldiers who have been identified — Brown-Weeks and Patterson — were remembered Wednesday as outgoing athletes.
Brown-Weeks liked baseball and played varsity soccer at his high school in western Massachusetts.
“He always had a smile on his face,” Justin Duncan, Brown-Weeks’ former coach and history teacher, told The Recorder in Greenfield, Mass.
Brown-Weeks also liked visiting Boston and New York and enjoyed poetry, said his father, Jon Weeks.
Patterson played point guard for the Rochester High Zebras and played second base on the baseball team.
Former teachers told the local paper and television stations in Rochester, Ind., a town near South Bend, that Patterson had a zest for life.
Rob Malchow, a former teacher of Patterson’s, said he was a leader on and off the playing field.
“You could tease him and he would tease you back in a respectful manner, and you know that’s the kind of kid you want to teach and work with whether it was in the classroom or on the court,” Malchow said. “And so I got to experience a little of both.”