A distant war comes home to America

[unhappycamper]

Kathleen Berry of Wichita, Kansas, holds the flag that draped the casket of her husband, David.

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.

A distant war comes home to America
By David Goldstein | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2007

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.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/23174.html