Fervent peace activists sort through complex emotions as they mourn a son killed in Iraq. He died a hero, they say -- a parents' contradiction.By Tomas Alex Tizon in
The Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2003
...snip...
Two Army chaplains got out and knocked on the front door. Even before they spoke, Patricia spotted the gold crosses on their lapels and sensed why they were there. She let out a cry. Joe rushed into the living room and saw the uniformed figures in the doorway.
"I don't want to hear it," he said to the chaplains. "I don't want to hear it." He took a few steps and raised a fist in the air as if to strike a wall, but held back. The chaplains described the little they knew about the circumstances of Ben's death, and informed the Colgans that the Army had given him a posthumous promotion to first lieutenant. They said his body would be shipped home in about a week.
As the chaplains left, the Colgan home filled with wails. Family members took turns with the telephone to break the news. Within hours, all of Ben's seven siblings, his eight aunts and uncles and most of his 32 first cousins were at the house, crying and consoling one another. They told each other Ben stories and began immediately to scour the extended network of Colgan households for pictures of Ben. Suddenly, pictures of him became precious.
In the days that followed, grief was overcome by the business of getting Ben home, his body cremated, his life memorialized, his soul ushered into heaven.
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