AP: War Losses Mount for Small Towns

[Judi Lynn]

AP: War Losses Mount for Small Towns
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer

February 20, 2007, 12:05 PM EST
MCKEESPORT, Pa. -- Raised in the projects in an old steel town, Edward "Willie" Carman saw the Army as a chance to build a new life.

"I'm not doing it to you, I'm doing it for me," the then-18-year-old told his mother, Joanna Hawthorne, after coming home from high school one day and surprising her with the news.

When Carman died in Iraq three years ago at age 27, he had money saved for college, a fiancee and two kids -- including a baby son he'd never met. Neighbors in Hawthorne's mobile home park collected $400 and left it in an envelope in her door.

"When they came and told me he was gone, oh my God, it just crushed me," Hawthorne said. "There was actual pain in my heart. It felt like someone was in there just ripping it apart."

McKeesport is not alone in its mourning. Nearly half of the more than 3,100 U.S. military fatalities in Iraq have come from towns like McKeesport, where fewer than 25,000 people live, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. One in five hailed from hometowns of less than 5,000.
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-iraq-small-town-burden,0,3000239.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[AspenRose]

1. Randi has been talking about this today

I am just nauseated hearing her stories about various GIs. Sick to my stomach. :puke:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Really sad. I thought of the young woman who was wounded at the very beginning,

and made into a heroine on the spot, with attributions of super-woman courage, and deeds, long before anyone actually knew the truth.

She was forced to enlist in order to get money for college.

It's all such a damned shame. It would be so much different if their pResident hadn't created this hell to make fortunes for his cronies, associates, fellow war profiteers, and seize power which is not his to claim from people who have done him no harm.