Supporting Our Troops??

Sometimes I just don't know what's worse: that we have sent our soldiers to risk their lives for a fight that has nothing to do with us, or the callous way we rationalize their deaths. I am glad that Ms. Cason wrote this article that she gave these kids (all three of them) one more time in our collective memory. The newspaper that published this story gave one of these soldiers, a local native only 21 years old, about five lines the other day. Perhaps it was too difficult to go out and speak to Mr. Meza's parents, to search out one teacher or former employer, perhaps they just don't care. All I know is that all of our soldiers, but especially the ones who have sacrificed their lives, deserve at least a little more time to research and then tell the story of their lives. CORRECTION: I didn't see the article they published two days later: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/12/soldier-in-iraq-less-than-a-month/

I know you are capable of clicking onto the link and reading the story on your own, and I am not trying to fill up my blog with all these words that I didn't write, but with these local newspapers, the links eventually go away, and I want to give all three of these soldiers a little bit of posterity.

Different twists to two soldiers' stories
By Colleen Cason Sunday, October 14, 2007

Some stories, once heard, stake out a place in our brains.

Most of the time they hang out quietly in some back lobe of the cerebrum. But something will happen and they come roaring to the front of the mind.

Pfc. Kevin Luna's story is one of those for me.

I thought immediately of the Oxnard native last week when news broke of the death of Army National Guard Cpl. Ciara Durkin of Quincy, Mass.

Durkin, a 30-year-old native of Ireland, died while serving her adopted country in Afghanistan. She was found with a single gunshot wound to the head outside the chapel at Bagram Airfield.
In short order Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy called for an independent investigation. Government liaisons were at the family home providing support and information.

There are red flags here, to be sure. In shades of the case of National Football League safety-turned-soldier Pat Tillman, the Durkin family apparently first had been informed Ciara was killed in action.

In addition, Durkin was gay and had told her siblings if anything happened to her they should push for an investigation.

I begrudge the Durkins nothing. The family of a solider who gave up her life while serving this country deserves every kindness and comfort this nation can provide.

But Kevin Luna's family got neither outraged senators nor solicitous liaisons after he died Jan. 27, 2005, while serving on the front lines in Iraq. He was killed in his barracks by a single gunshot wound to the chest.

There were red flags in his case, too. In the weeks before his death, he had told his mother and an Army buddy that he was being ostracized by his unit.

The official story is Luna's sergeant, James Pousard, shot the 26-year-old husband and father while playing with his gun.

Before Army investigators arrived, soldiers took it upon themselves to clean up the crime scene.
His family, particularly his mother, Theresa, has never bought the Army's version — not because of what she had heard — but because of the silence. She has heard almost nothing from anyone who served with Luna in Iraq. If it were just a horrible accident, wouldn't all his comrades have lined up to console her?

Instead of liaisons at her disposal, she has been forced to file Freedom of Information Act requests for records on his case.

She had to travel alone to Germany, where Pousard's trial was held, to deliver a victim-impact statement when no one else in Luna's unit came forward.

And senators calling for investigations? Forget about it.

When I was reporting on the Luna case for a Memorial Day feature, the sandbagging I got was so outrageous, even by government standards, I kept the e-mails.

Still, I believe everyone cares about what happened to Kevin Luna. They just don't care enough to follow up.

Even the president of the United States.

Last month at an event for military families at the White House, Theresa Luna was able to look into the face of President Bush and talk about her son. She told the commander-in-chief she had questions about how he died. She told him she had even written him a letter.
What was the response? Mr. Bush had asked.

Theresa Luna was referred to the someone at the Pentagon. It never went anywhere, she recalled telling Mr. Bush before she began to weep and saw tears in the president's eyes.
But there was no follow-up.

I hesitated to even write this column. I feared it would be giving too much attention to one soldier.

The other day, at the very moment I was debating it in my mind, I received a rather clear sign, though.

I was driving on Highway 101 when a blue pickup passed me. On the rear window was one of those memorial decals. This one read: "In Loving Memory of Kevin Luna."

On Oct. 5, Cpl. Gilberto Meza died in Iraq when a roadside bomb went off.

Perhaps, one of you will read a story about this 21-year-old Oxnard man, and his memory will find a home in your mind.

And if he does, tell his story and if it comes to it — and I hope it never does — make noise when things aren't right.

Just because fallen soldiers are out of our sight, they should never be out of our minds.

— E-mail this Star columnist at ccason@Venturaountystar.com.

To find out more
To learn more about the investigation into Pfc. Kevin Luna's death, go to: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/may/27/no-headline---na1fcfriendlyfire27/