Mom fights to be buried with soldier son

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Denise Anderson of Mansfield, Mass., mother of fallen Army Iraq War veteran Corey Shea, kisses his photo as her brother Scott Anderson looks on at the National Veterans Cemetery in Bourne, Mass. Shea was killed in action in Iraq in November 2008. Anderson wants to be buried with her only son in a veterans cemetery.


Mom fights to be buried with soldier son
By Andrew Miga - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Dec 28, 2009 14:53:32 EST

WASHINGTON — Denise Anderson lost her only son in the Iraq war. She’s determined not to lose her fight to be buried with him in a national veterans cemetery.

Army Spc. Corey Shea died Nov. 12, 2008, in Mosul, with about a month left on his tour of duty in Iraq. He was buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, about 50 miles from his hometown of Mansfield, Mass.

A grieving Anderson, 42, soon hit an obstacle in her quest to be buried in the same plot with her son. That chance is offered only to the spouses or children of dead veterans; Corey Shea was 21, single and childless.

The Veterans Affairs Department grants waivers and has approved four similar requests from dead soldiers’ parents since 2005.

Anderson also sought a waiver. But under the VA’s policy, she has to die first to get one, a limbo that Anderson finds tough to live with.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_army_motherson_burial_122809/