Happy Birthday Casey, From your Mom

Today is Casey's birthday. His mom Cindy wrote this for him. The birthdays of our babies means so much to us mom's.  

  Dear Friends,  

26 years ago today, Casey was 6 hours and 49 minutes old. What a joyful day that day was. The birth of our firstborn. He was so wanted and his birth was so highly anticipated. A true bundle of joy.   One year, one month, and 25 days ago (almost to the minute) George Bush and his Crime Cabal killed Casey in Sadr City. One of them, perhaps Condi, Rummy, Bremer, or Cheney, might as well have pulled the trigger that blew off the back of Casey's sweet head.   When one embarks on the path of mourning a child, new experiences and feelings pop up constantly to suprise you. One of the feelings that I find amazing on this 2nd birthday since Casey has been in his premature grave is this: Birthdays are infinitely harder than death days. You are supposed to be sad on death days, but birthdays are supposed to be times of joy. We should be talking to Casey on the phone today, wishing him Happy Birthday. He should be thanking me for the present I sent him. Instead, we are heading to the cemetary for a Memorial Service. Then I think of the 24 Happy Birthdays we did have with him. Balloons, games, presents, cake, laughter, bar-be-ques (he was born on Memorial Day, so his parties were always bar-be-ques), pinatas, fun and love.   Bush and the Crime Cabal in power sent 26 more soldiers to their graves this week and 26 more families to lives of living hell. 26 more lives and families devastated and destroyed for absolutely nothing. We will see the hypocritical mobsters of the state at their events today and tomorrow spewing filth from their mouths, such as:"Freedom isn't Free," and "We must stay the course in Iraq to honor the sacrifices of the fallen."  What was the great deceiver's course? Civil War? Because that's what it looks like our children were slaughtered for. Then the morons who killed our children will happily go back to their homes and have a nice Memorial Day dinner secure in the fact that their children will never die in a war and their children will have nice, wealthy, long lives because of the incredible riches this misadventure in Iraq has brought their fathers and mothers.   I mourn the thousands of innocent Iraqis dead for zilch and their families. Today and tomorrow, I will honor Casey and the 1656 others killed to pad some bank accounts. Not because they died to keep America safe, free, or democratized (on the contrary, quite the opposite), nor did their murders bring freedom and democracy to Iraq (on the contrary, quite the opposite); but because they were wrongfully murdered and someone needs to be held accountable. We as people of peace need to make sure that their lives and deaths were for peace, not deception and war.   Happy Birthday, Dear Son.    Love to you all, Cindy  

Remembering them....

Memorial Day Weekend

It's not about what a great deal you can get on a new car. It's not about what sales are going on at the stores. It's about paying tribute to the ones that have given their lives to our country.

I wonder how many people will pay tribute or even give it a thought. Here we are at war. We lost over 900 in the past year over in Iraq. Do you know any of them? I do. I wish they weren't sent to Iraq. I wish I didn't have to pay tribute to them this weekend, but I do. I wish they didn't die, but they did.

I must pay tribute to them for their bravery. 1655 in a little more than 2 years. I believe, I know the number is higher than that. Our government doesn't want to give us the truth on the number. They don't want us to see their bodies coming home. I guess to them, if we don't see it or hear about it, it doesn't happen.

This week we have lost so many. Do people think about them? I think about them all the time. Every day, even now as I have the news on I am listening about how many people have been killed last night.  How big will the number be before this is all over? Will we be close to a million people?  I'm not just talking about Americans. The million comes from all that are being killed.

I think about the parents, the spouses, the children that will get the van drive up to their house, the knock on the door, the words saying their family members have died...and all the tears to follow. The tears, the broken heart that will never end.

Think of those who have died this weekend as you are at your BBQ's, while you are swimming in your pools and having your family gathering. Think of them and their families. If you get the chance help the families, then do it. They need so many hugs from all of us.

As a reminder to all that pass my house I have made a little memorial to pay tribute to the ones we lost in this war. 1655 names on 138 pages.  I have given special tribute to Casey Sheehan who's birthday would have been Sunday. His mom misses him so much. Her's is a heart that will never heal. I also made a special memorial for Alex Arredondo. My neighbor. His father blew up the government van when he found out the news of his son. He too has a very heavy heart.

Both Casey's mom and Alex's dad don't want us to ever forget them. They do everything they can to do speakings, talk to news papers and to the TV stations.  Let's not forget them EVER. Let's not forget any of them.

I think the best thing we can do to help heal their hearts is to bring home our troops. BRING THEM HOME NOW! How many more have to die before we realize we have done wrong?

NONE OF THE 1655 SHOULD HAVE DIED! 

END THE INVASION NOW!

I am very thankful we have Conyers to speak for us

CONYERS STRIKES BACK

Dem hammers Bush response to White House story; Finds 'irony' in comments about loss of life

Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) has issued a sharply worded letter to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan over the Administration's response to a Newsweek article, RAW STORY has learned.

Conyers raps the Administration for the demand that Newsweek retract their report, saying it "smacks of political exploitation of the deaths of innocent and a shameless attempt to intimidate reporters from critically investigating your Administration's actions."

He also says he finds it ironic that the Bush Administration is calling Newsweek to task for any loss of life based on reporting.

There is, Conyers said, "a sad irony in this White House claiming that someone else's errors or misjudgments led to the loss of innocent lives. Over 1,600 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives in the Iraq war, a war which your Administration justified by falsely claiming that  had weapons of mass destruction."

The U.S has vehemently attacked the Newsweek report.

"It's appalling that this story got out there," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remarked to reporters on her trip back from Iraq.

"People are dead," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters in Washington Monday. "People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be careful about what they do."

Conyers' letter follows.

May 17, 2005

Mr. Scott McClellan
Press Secretary
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. McClellan:

I write to express my profound disappointment and outrage about comments you made about a matter involving Newsweek magazine, which smacks of political exploitation of the deaths of innocent and a shameless attempt to intimidate reporters from critically investigating your Administration's actions. Your comments are contradicted by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and stand in stark contrast with your actions involving the "Downing Street Memo." I urge you and your counterpart at the Pentagon to immediately retract the comments made yesterday, and - at long last - provide a full accounting of the Administration's actions in the lead up to the Iraq war.

As you are aware, a May 9th Newsweek report indicated that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba flushed the Koran down a toilet as part of an interrogation. Newsweek has since retracted the story. However, as the magazine was reevaluating information received from its sources, it appears you opted to exploit the situation for partisan political gain by falsely laying blame on Newsweek for recent deaths in Afghanistan.

Specifically, at 11:23am yesterday, you declared in a public statement: "his report has had serious consequences. It has caused damage to the image of the United States abroad. It has -- people have lost their lives. It has certainly caused damage to the credibility of the media, as well, and Newsweek, itself." The Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, made similar comments. Referring to Newsweek's source, he said "People are dead because of what this son of a bitch said." The clear implication of these statements is that the Newsweek report had caused a loss of life in Muslim nations, presumably referring to the recent riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

First, this attempt to tie riots to the Newsweek article stands in stark contrast to the assessment of your own senior military officials. On May 12th, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff had reported on his consultations with the Senior Commander in Afghanistan about whether there was a causal relationship between the Newsweek story and the riots thusly: "[h]e thought it was not at alltied to the article in the magazine." The only conclusion that can be reasonably drawn is that, in contrast to career military officers, political operatives sought to score cheap political points by spreading falsehoods about Newsweek. The appropriate course of action is clear: you and Mr. DiRita should immediately retract your exploitative comments.

Second, there is - of course - a sad irony in this White House claiming that someone else's errors or misjudgments led to the loss of innocent lives. Over 1,600 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives in the Iraq war, a war which your Administration justified by falsely claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. To date, your Administration has consistently blocked Congressional inquiries into whether such claims were the result of intentional manipulation of intelligence or, as you assert, a mere "failure."

Moreover, your loquacious response to this matter stands in stark contrast to your response to a recently released classified memo comprising the minutes of a July 22 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet which calls into question the credibility of assertions made by your Administration in its drive to war. Among other things the memo indicates that Administration officials were working to ensure that "the intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy," implying that intelligence was deliberately manipulated to prop up the case for war. The memo also indicates, contrary to contemporaneous statements to the American people and the Congress that the President had already "made up his mind to take military action." When asked about this memo, you claimed that you "don't know about the specific memo" - two and one half weeks after its release and ten days after receiving a letter detailing its contents from 89 Members of Congress (which has still not been answered).

Third, the public deserves to know what precisely the White House is asserting with respect to the mistreatment of the Koran by interrogators: are such reports categorically false or are they, in the words of one publication, "manifold?" For example, a May1st New York Times report indicated that a Koran was thrown into a pile and stepped on at the Guantanamo detention facility and "[a] former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public _expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." The incident where a Koran was allegedly thrown in a toilet was also recounted by a former detainee in a March 26, 2003 article in the Washington Post, and corroborated by another detainee in a August 4, 2003 report by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The question is: are you categorically denying that the mistreatment of the Koran occurred, or are you simply denying the Newsweek report is accurate on hyper technical grounds?

Mr. McClellan, the American people have grown tired of the venomous partisanship and lack of candor on the part of this Administration. When taken to task for wrongdoing, a pattern has emerged of this Administration viciously attacking its accusers. The cornerstone of our democracy is an open and accountable government, and the American people deserve answers - not distractions -- today.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.

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Article originally published May 17, 2005

http://us.f324.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?YY=86348&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=-1&view=a&head=b&box=%40B%40Bulk

My Neighbor, Healing is hard without your children.

A Father's Public Grief, Private Healing

Months ago, he drew national attention when he lost it after learning of his son's death in Iraq. Today, he's slowly moving forward.

By John-Thor Dahlburg, / Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — For families of the fallen in Iraq, the grief is usually private, the sorrow and tears poured out behind closed doors. But not for Carlos Luis Arredondo.

When three Marines arrived at his suburban home one afternoon last summer to inform him that his 20-year-old son, a lance corporal, had been killed in action, Arredondo went berserk with grief, anger and incomprehension. He grabbed a propane torch and a 5-gallon can of gasoline and set fire to the Marines' van on the street, badly burning himself in the process.

Much of America watched the burning wreck live on cable television.

Nine months later, Arredondo, 44, is still healing, the singed flesh of his calves a ruddy brown. His doctors have recommended that he keep out of the sun for a year.

He has apologized to the Marines, is receiving grief counseling and will be moving this month to Massachusetts to be closer to his son's grave and the boy's younger brother. In November, a Boston intersection was renamed in the late serviceman's honor — he was born in the city and, before enlisting, had graduated from a Boston-area vocational school with an electrician's degree.

"I miss him every day that goes by," Arredondo said of his son. "I wake up, and I think of him. If he was alive, maybe he'd be thinking about being married and having some children."

Marine Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo was shot in Najaf on Aug. 25. It was his father's birthday, and the older Arredondo, a handyman and former bus driver, was building a white picket fence at the home in Florida that he'd moved into six weeks earlier. He was carrying his cellphone, expecting his son's call.

Instead, the Marines pulled up in their van.

When his son was buried in a cemetery in Walpole, Mass., Arredondo was brought in an ambulance to attend.

The ache of Alexander's death is still acute for three generations of his family.

"We have had two family tragedies — what happened to Alex and what happened to my son," said Luz Arredondo, 65, the boy's grandmother.

It has taken its toll on her too. Her son said she had a nervous breakdown and was seeing a psychiatrist. Music makes her weep.

Alexander's mother, who had earlier remarried and now lives in Bangor, Maine, is subject to bouts of brooding she calls "Alex's days" when she wants to be alone and won't answer the phone.

The other child she had with Arredondo, Brian, 18, was supposed to go live with his father, she said, but the turmoil caused by his brother's death ended that plan.

These days, Arredondo seems embarrassed, as well as puzzled, by what he did the day the Marines pulled up in front of his home. He snapped, he said, when he couldn't get though on the phone to a Marine sergeant he knew in an effort to get more news about his son.

At first, he said, he had thought the Marines had come to do recruiting. When they refused his request to leave, he clambered into their vehicle with the torch, gas can and a hammer. Standing on the street outside, he said, they did nothing to stop him.

"I was calling my son, 'Alexander, Alexander,' and saying, 'This is not happening,' " he said. "I picked up the hammer and started smashing things inside the van. I was totally crazy in that moment."

He sloshed gasoline around the interior, and it exploded, propelling him into the street. He suffered second-degree burns over 20% of his body. His mother, who had been trying to pull him from the van, tugged off his flaming socks

At hospitals in Hollywood, Miami and Boston, doctors worked to treat his burns, which extended from his right ear to his lower legs. In Massachusetts, he said, he was entitled to help from Medicaid. The Florida hospitals that admitted him sent him more than $53,000 in bills.

But his public display of a father's agony over the death of a child in Iraq caught the attention and sympathy of others. More than 400 people, he said, sent cards and letters, often enclosing money to help him pay his medical expenses.

"It was overwhelming," said Arredondo, who immigrated from Costa Rica to the U.S. in 1980.

When a New Jersey man mailed him a $1,000 check, Arredondo telephoned to thank him. The donor promptly sent another $1,000. Arredondo decided not to call again.

From California, two Latino boys, 7 and 10, who heard about Arredondo's loss, gave up their weekly treat at McDonald's and mailed $10.

"I wasn't alone on this," Arredondo said.

He was ready to sell his single-story house in this town between Miami and Fort Lauderdale to pay for his medical treatment, but between the gifts and adjustments the two Florida hospitals made in his bills, he said he wouldn't have to do so and, instead, could rent out the house when he moved north.

To help him come to grips with his loss, the muscular, black-haired Arredondo has been seeing a grief counselor, sent weekly by the Veterans Administration, and meeting with members of other families who have had loved ones killed in Iraq.

At Christmastime, Arredondo visited a Marine Corps Reserve unit in suburban Miami to meet with the Marines who had come to his house and apologize for destroying their van.

From the Marines' perspective, a spokesman said last week, the grieving father had nothing to apologize for.

"Losing a vehicle pales in comparison to losing a son," said Bryan Driver, public affairs officer for the Marine Corps Casualty Assistance Office in Washington. "That is news that no one wants to hear."

Arredondo said his grief counselor had advised him to put away his son's belongings, so he filled four plastic tubs with letters and other personal effects.

Not all mementos have been stored away. A portrait of the late Lance Cpl. Arredondo in his high-collared dress uniform sits on a table in the living room, his dog tags draped over the picture frame.

His father has made photocopies of one of his son's letters, written as he crossed the Pacific.

"Soon enough," Alexander Arredondo wrote, "I will be in the desert, outside the city of [Baghdad], in full combat gear, ready to carry out my mission….

"I am not afraid of dying," he told his parents. "I am more afraid of what will happen to all the ones that I love if something happens to me."

Arredondo said that burying his son was "very hard, very hard, knowing that he had so much to look forward to."

He said he prayed for all families who had lost a service member in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Keep writing, he urges parents whose children are serving.

"They want to read your letters," he said. "They need to hear that we are very proud of them and that we love them."

She's ready to join, as long as she can go to a fashion school, too. "I don't want to go to war,"

Guard recruiters shunned

By Tom Davis / Bergen County Record

The blood and turmoil of war are behind him. Now Sgt. 1st Class Rob Barea is fighting a new battle: He's trying to line up recruits for the New Jersey National Guard.

Occasionally, he'll get a kid who wants to travel or take advantage of the free tuition program. Others will meet Barea at a local high school and do sit-ups for him on the hallway floor to prove they're fit to fight.

Then they go home and talk to their folks.

"Some [parents] respect it," said Barea, a veteran of the 1999 Kosovo war. But others ask: "Why do you want to die?"

The National Guard clearly has become a hard sell. Because of the war in Iraq, the free tuition and other benefits are no longer attractive. Instead of a relatively safe, part-time commitment, it's viewed as a one-way ticket to the battlefield. Some critics have labeled it the "backdoor draft."

Although recruiters are working day and night, potential recruits are staying away in droves. New Jersey recruiting offices that were crowded 10 years ago are nearly deserted. Some report a 50 percent drop in business from a decade ago.

Nationwide, recruiting has dropped 22 percent since 2002, even as active-duty levels remain stable. In 2004, the Guard fell 12 percent short of its recruiting goal.

It's a huge shift since the Sept. 11 attacks, when patriotism impelled many to join. In 2002, the Guard exceeded its recruiting goals by 5 percent.

Patriotism is still high, the Pentagon says, noting that statistics can be misleading. More than 170,000 Guard members and reservists are serving in Iraq, and military officials say force levels remain strong.

Recruiters, meanwhile, say they still get a number of people interested in military service.

"You get parents who call up and say, 'Will you take my kid?' " said Sgt. Manny Vasquez, a recruiter in Passaic and Morris counties.

Many civilians say they're unwilling to take that risk, however. They note that more than 1,500 Americans have died in Iraq, 36 of them from New Jersey.

"I don't want to be in a life-or-death situation," said Kim McSharar, a senior at Lodi High School who once considered joining the military.

Potential recruits also hear the stories of people pulled from their families and full-time jobs to serve 12 to 18 months in a war zone. They fear losing their lives outside of the Guard and detaching themselves from the people they're already struggling to support.

'Something behind it'

Unlike the part-time reserves, the New Jersey Guard provides a free education at any state school. But signing up also requires a three-year commitment.

In that time, some parents say, anything can happen.

"They always think there's something behind it," said Sgt. 1st Class Gabriel Gonzalez, a recruiter in Teaneck.

Alexandra Diakos, a 16-year-old sophomore at Lodi High School, wants to join. She's athletic, although a bit unsure of her goals. The college opportunity excites her, though.

Aiming to impress the recruiters, she recently did sit-ups outside the school's cafeteria as they counted.

If Diakos joins when she's 17, she'll need her parents' signature, which is required for recruits under 18. She's not sure she'll get it.

"They're understanding," she said, "but they're afraid."

With the nation at war, fewer soldiers are leaving active duty to join the National Guard, said Lt. Col. Mike Milord, a Pentagon spokesman. What's more, some Guard members say they regret ever joining.

Before Sept. 11, they served only two weeks in the summer and one weekend a month. Now, some say, they have no plans to reenlist.

"It's ruined my life completely," said Ray Murdock, a Bass River Township resident and specialist in the Army National Guard. "It's going to take me a long, long time to recover from this."

Safe no more

The Guard was once considered a safe haven. Many young people joined during the Vietnam War - if they were lucky enough to find an opening - to avoid the conflict.

Into the 1990s, the Guard regularly reached its recruiting goals.

"Ten years ago, you could trip over people" at a recruiting station, Gonzalez said.

With no draft in place, however, the Pentagon has begun relying more heavily on the Guard for combat operations. Now, if the recruiters sign up two a week at any station, that's good.

Few have enlisted at the Teaneck and Riverdale armories, the only National Guard recruiting centers in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties.

Recruiters often sit and wait for people to walk in, but end up looking at empty chairs.

"We have to go out there and expose ourselves to the public," said Gonzalez.

They also distribute their cellphone numbers to anyone who shows any interest and accept calls late into the night. They attend job fairs and sporting events in which potential recruits participate. They talk about family, share food and talk about rap artists.

On a rare night out with their families, recruiters will go to a mall and talk up the virtues of Guard life with a store clerk. Their spouses usually don't mind.

"Sometimes I have my wife working for me," Gonzalez said.

Going to school

For many recruiters, however, schools remain the primary target.

In Paterson, Passaic and Hackensack, recruiters pitch college and job-training opportunities. But in inner-city neighborhoods, disenfranchisement from the military, and the war, is heavy, recruiters say.

"I've gone to high schools where people have called me a murderer and a killer," Vasquez said.

At the more suburban schools, students hang out with the recruiters during their lunch periods. They pick up fliers.

Showing interest is a far cry from signing up, however.

Recently, recruiters set up a table outside the cafeteria at Lodi High School. They gave out free pencils and notebooks to students passing by. Pvt. Stephanie Saunders, a recent recruit, gave students a pep talk.

"You meet people who are willing to go to war with you, and die with you," she told a group of students.

Jacqueline Mendez, a 17-year-old senior, said she's ready to join, as long as she can go to a fashion school, too.

She did add one condition, however.

"I don't want to go to war," she said. "I can't shoot anybody. I'd be too scared."

Fear Control Bush Style

Ridge Reveals Clashes on Alerts Former Homeland Security Chief Debunks "Myth" By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.

"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "

Revising or scrapping the color-coded alert system is under review by new Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff. Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said "improvements and adjustments" may be announced within the next few months.

The threat level was last raised on a nationwide scale in December 2003, to orange from yellow - or "elevated" risk - where the alert level is now. In most cases, Ridge said Homeland Security officials didn't want to raise the level because they knew local governments and businesses would have to spend money putting temporary security upgrades in place.

"You have to use that tool of communication very sparingly," Ridge said at the forum, which was attended by seven other former department leaders.

The level is raised if a majority on the President's Homeland Security Advisory Council favors it and President Bush concurs. Among those on the council with Ridge were Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI chief Robert Mueller, CIA director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Ridge and Ashcroft publicly clashed over how to communicate threat information to the public. But Ridge has never before discussed internal dissention over the threat level.

The color-coded system was controversial from the start. Polls showed the public found it confusing.

It happened

As Cindy was typing her words in my last post...it happened.  How many more mom's will be added to the ones that will have a sad mothers day? 

 

Iraq blast kills Miss. native

Sgt. John McGee, raised in Delta, one of 23 killed in explosion

By Lora Hines / The Clarion-Ledger

Rebecca McGee of Cary got a Mother's Day card on Monday from her son, Sgt. John McGee, who was stationed with his Alabama National Guard unit in Iraq.

The next day, the 72-year-old mother was getting ready for work when an Army chaplain arrived at her front door.

"I knew why he was there," McGee said. "I was stunned for words."

Sgt. John McGee, 36, was one of 23 soldiers who died in an explosion earlier this week while riding in a vehicle, said his mother. She did not know the cause of the blast.

"I really didn't cry," McGee said. "I said, 'Lord, have mercy' as I was walking around."

Officials from the Alabama National Guard could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Lt. Col. Tim Powell of the Mississippi National Guard said he didn't know details about McGee's death.

Since military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq began, 27 soldiers with ties to Mississippi have died.

About a week ago, McGee briefly visited with her son as he stopped by before returning to Iraq. He had been on leave, said his sister, Sharon McGee-Barnes. "He was trying to make the rounds," she said.

Her brother had spent much of his leave waiting for a car he bought on eBay to be delivered to his home in Columbus, Ga., McGee-Barnes said. He decided to visit family in Mississippi after the car failed to arrive. "The car came the day after he left for Iraq," McGee-Barnes said.

Rebecca McGee recalled how she helped her son enlist in the Army when he was 17 and a 1986 graduate of South Delta High School. He joined the Alabama National Guard in the late 1990s, McGee-Barnes said.

He was expected to leave the National Guard in August, spend some time with family and then enroll in school, his mother said.

She said her son was devout in his faith, and she knows she will see him again. "I'm going to reunite with my son," Rebecca McGee said. "All God's children go to heaven. When I walk inside, I'll look for him. I'll recognize his smile."