A distant war comes home to America

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Editor's note: Twenty percent of the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan come from the Army National Guard. Many are from small towns, and go to war alongside family and friends. This is Part One of a four-part story about one of those units, Bravo Battery of the Kansas National Guard's 161st Field Artillery, and one night in Iraq that changed many lives.

The war in Iraq came home to Kathy Berry's front porch in south Wichita, Kan., one morning last winter.

It was just past 6 a.m. on Feb. 22, not quite dawn, when two soldiers in green dress uniforms stepped past the patriotic bunting that trimmed her home.

When the doorbell awakened her, Berry thought it was her son-in-law, who'd just left for work. He'd probably forgotten his keys. But when she opened the door, she felt a chill that had nothing to do with the early morning winter darkness.

Two solemn Army National Guard officers stepped inside.

"How bad?" she asked.

They hesitated. And Berry knew.

"There was a mortar attack," said one. "A response team was sent out, and there was one fatality."

Link: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/23174.html


Kathleen Berry wears this picture of her deceased husband, David, around her neck.