War casualties - how close to home?

[Minstrel Boy]

Poll question: War casualties - how close to home?

[Solly Mack]

1. 6/10 for me

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. My cousin just got home....

From Marine bootcamp, he gets to spend the holidays with us, then goes. He's 21. My 18 yr old son is scheduled to start boot camp in June. I hope to God that Bush is gone by the time he is deployed. It will be the only way I will not go insane constantly worrying about him.

BTW - why did these boys join? - It's their only chance for a college education. I'm afraid that by the time they get out (if they survive) Bush will have done away with the GI bill, just like he's cutting med. benefits and pay for our troops.

[RPM]

3. A friend died

1st Lieutenant Neil Anthony Santoriello, 13-Aug-2004 at Khaldiyah (near Fallujah)

His mother's opinion letter:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04262/381101.stm

[seemslikeadream]

4. Sorry I could only vote once in your poll MB

I know someone who's died
I know someone who's been wounded
I know someone who has served/is serving
I know someone who is to be deployed

My friend son



Army 1st Lt. Brian D. Slavenas

30, of Genoa, Ill.; assigned to F Company, 106th Aviation Battalion, Army National Guard, Peoria, Ill.; killed Nov. 2 in an attack on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq.

At 6-foot-5, 1st Lt. Brian Slavenas stood out in a crowd, even though blending in was more comfortable. And Ronald Slavenas says his son probably wouldn't have been crazy about the word "hero" being used to describe his death. "He would say, 'No big deal.' He wouldn't want any kind of adulation," the father said. Brian Slavenas, 30, was the pilot of a Chinook helicopter shot down Nov. 2. Friends and family in Genoa, Ill., described Slavenas as a "gentle giant," a nonviolent man who felt a duty to his country. "He wasn't one of those gung-ho, want-to-go-to-war-type guys. He was there to do a job," said his brother, Eric Slavenas, who served in Grenada with the Army. Like his paratrooper father and two older brothers, Slavenas followed a path to the military. The Lithuanian-born Ronald Slavenas, who immigrated to the United States in his teens after fleeing to West Germany as a boy, instilled in his sons a sense of commitment to the country that had taken in his family. "I thought as an immigrant when you come to this country, you put your shoulder to the wheel," he said. Brian Slavenas's high school yearbook lists activities as varied as marching band, National Honor Society, chess club, intramural basketball and track. After high school, he became an Army paratrooper, then joined the National Guard, then went to officer school and decided to become a helicopter pilot. He earned an engineering degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

— Associated Press


On the morning of 2 Nov. 2003, a formation of two CH-47 Chinook helicopters of F Company, 106th Aviation Battalion, 12th Aviation Brigade carrying more than 50 souls moves toward the U.S. base at Baghdad Int'l Airport. These are mostly exhausted, battle weary soldiers going to the exit airport for well earned rest and recreation (R&R) flights abroad.
Mostly the flight consists of troops from the U.S. Army 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based at Fort Carson, Colorado. Originally earning it's spurs on the frontier in 1850's New Mexico Territory, today, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is the only heavy Armored Cavalry Regiment in the U.S. Army that owns the distinction of 157 years of continuous active duty.

U.S. military officials had repeatedly warned that hundreds of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles remain unaccounted for in Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003 -- but these threats are just another in the parade of horribles from which the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment troopers hope to take temporary leave this morning. The pilots, including 1st Lt. Brian D. Slavenas, of Genoa, Ill., remain wary.

Suddenly, the CH-47 Chinook helicopters come under fire from an unknown weapon -- perhaps a rocket propelled grenade or -- more likely -- a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile. Disaster.

An eyewitness account reported:

" ... helicopter was flying at between 200 & 300 feet - meaning that the fast-moving missile, when fired at the correct angle of approach, allowed little time for its target to escape."
Two missiles were fired. One slammed into the right side of the helicopter's rear engine, causing it to fail catastrophically and triggering a fire. In addition to the 15 killed, 25 people aboard were injured.

The exact type of missile used has not been determined, the Army official said, although it is known to have been of the shoulder-fired variety, also known as a man-portable air defense missile. Speculation has centered on the SA-7, a Russian-designed missile widely available in Iraq.

The official said a number of survivors, Iraqi eyewitnesses on the ground and passengers aboard a second Army helicopter flying nearby reported having seen flares after the missile was launched. The official stressed, however, that he considered this information to be unconfirmed."

The CH-47D Chinook (1991 model), piloted by 1st Lt. Brian D. Slavenas is down. There are 16 dead & 26 wounded. The attack was the single deadliest of the war for American forces.

The other CH-47D Chinook takes successful evasive action and is spared. The total number of enemy rounds fired is unclear.

This investigation is likely to continue for some time.
http://www.cargolaw.com/2003nightmare_angelfire.html

[Minstrel Boy]

5. I'm sorry.

Leonard Cohen, for War Child Canada:



http://www.warchild.ca/holidaycards.asp

[sleipnir]

6. Lost a good friend from High School due to Bush's warmongering

Sadly, there are hundreds of thousands of people like me in America now, with a personal cost from the Invasion.