Tonight we come together to remember two U.S. soldiers who died last week in service to our country: Pfc. Scott G. Barnett of Concord, California, who was killed in Iraq, and Sgt. Carlos E. Gill of Fayetteville, North Carolina, who died after becoming ill while supporting combat operations in Afghanistan. We also remember tonight Spc. Lawrence L. Aldrich of Fort Worth, Texas, a soldier who was killed in South Vietnam in 1968; his remains were recently identified and returned to his family for burial. Please join with the Daily Kos community to celebrate the lives of these three men and to honor their memory.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members honored here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.
SCOTT GARLAND BARNETT
Last Friday, the Department of Defense announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom:
Pfc. Scott G. Barnett, 24, of Concord, Calif., died Jan. 28 in Tallil, Iraq, of injuries sustained while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, Katterbach, Germany.
Scott Barnett attended Concord High School and Olympic Continuation High School in California. An Eagle Scout, he liked traveling, hunting, camping, and playing video games. In 2008 he married his high school sweetheart, Nikki. The third generation of his family to join the military, Barnett enlisted in the army in 2009. He was on his first deployment to Iraq and had recently been told that he would next be going to Afghanistan.
In addition to his wife, Barnett is survived by his parents and a sister. A first cousin said he was "a great cousin and a wonderful husband and a wonderful brother."
May he rest in peace.
(Little information was available online about Pfc. Barnett as of this writing. Sources: Department of Defense; SFGate; Claycord.com; USFallenorg on flickr; Freedom Remembered blog; Oakland Tribune)
***
CARLOS E. GILL
On Friday, the Department of Defense also announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom:
Sgt. Carlos E. Gill, 25, of Fayetteville, N.C., died Jan. 26 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center of an illness. He was evacuated from Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, Dec. 19, 2009, where he was supporting combat operations. Gill was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Carlos Gill was twenty years old when he joined the army in January 2005. After basic and advanced training, he was assigned to Yongsan, Korea, in June 2006 and then to Fort Lewis in July 2008. He deployed to Afghanistan with his brigade in July 2009.
In addition to earning his high school diploma in 2002, Gill received Military Occupational Specialty 25U: Signal Support Systems Specialist training in 2006 and completed the Warrior Leadership Course in 2008. His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korea Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the NCO Professional Development Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, and the Overseas Service Ribbon.
May he rest in peace.
(Little information was available online about Sgt. Gill as of this writing. Sources: Department of Defense; FayObserver.com; Nisqually Valley News)
***
LAWRENCE LEE ALDRICH
On Friday, the Department of Defense also announced:
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Vietnam War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial.
Army Specialist Lawrence L. Aldrich will be buried in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas tomorrow [Saturday, January 30].
On May 6, 1968, Aldrich was a member of a search-and-clear mission in Binh Dinh Province in what was then South Vietnam. He was last seen with two other Americans engaged in a battle with enemy forces while manning a M-60 machine gun position. An air strike was called in, but one of the bombs inadvertently landed on Aldrich’s position, killing the three soldiers. Members of his unit later recovered the remains of the two other men, but Aldrich could not be found.
In July 1992, a joint U.S.-Socialist Republic of Vietnam team traveled to the province to investigate the loss. They interviewed a local citizen who remembered a large ground battle in the area in May or June 1968. He took the team to a location where he indicated the remains were buried, but an excavation in 1994 found no evidence of a grave or remains.
Vietnamese officials unilaterally investigated the case in 2006 and interviewed two villagers who recalled finding a body of an American after the battle and burying it where it lay. A second joint investigation in 2007, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, recommended another excavation based on the information provided by the Vietnamese.
The excavation in March 2009 unearthed human remains and other non-biological evidence. The identification of the remains was confirmed by matching the remains with Aldrich’s dental records.
Aldrich is listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He is survived by three brothers and two sisters; his parents are deceased. At the request of the family, the Patriot Guard Riders stood the flag line at Aldrich's internment. The soldier's siblings arranged to have his casket placed on top of his father's:
"Part of my dad’s heart believed that Larry had been killed," said Janine Peck, Aldrich’s younger sister.... "But it’s very hard to come to grips with something when you don’t have anything to grip. There’s always a little part of yourself that believes there’s still a chance that they were wrong. Dad held on to that chance until his dying day."
May he rest in peace.
(Sources: Department of Defense; North Texas Patriot Guard Riders; Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A moving, detailed story and additional photos are at the Star-Telegram link, from which Aldrich's sister's quotation is taken.)
***
If you want to do something to assist our military and their families, please consider the annual Daily Kos care-package project, Netroots for the Troops, as well as anysoldier.com, Fisher House, or Books for Soldiers. If you have frequent flyer miles you would like to donate to hospitalized veterans or their families, see Fisher House's Hero Miles program. Information for helping the animal companions of our deployed military is here. Sending your own care package to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is easy; read how at anysoldier.com. And don't forget them when they get home. Visit welcomebackveterans.org, Hire Heroes USA, and National Coalition for Homeless Veterans to learn what you can do.
As of this writing, 4,375 members of the U.S. armed services have been killed in Iraq; and 978 U.S. forces supporting Afghanistan's Operation Enduring Freedom have died. In addition, 318 other coalition forces from 22 countries have died in Iraq, and 572 other coalition forces from 24 countries and NATO have died in Afghanistan. More than 31,600 U.S. servicemen and women have been wounded in Iraq, and the suicide rate among servicemen and women is rising. The death toll among Iraqi civilians is unknown but exceeds 100,000 and probably is several hundreds of thousands. At least 157 journalists have been killed in Iraq during the war.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories. The series, which was begun by i dunno, is currently maintained by a girl in MI, blue jersey mom, CalNM, Chacounne, JanosNation, JeNoCo, joyful, monkeybiz, noweasels, Proud Mom and Grandma, roses, Sandy on Signal, SisTwo, SpamNunn, True Blue Majority, and twilight falling. If you would like to participate in writing these tributes, please contact Sandy on Signal or monkeybiz.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and families of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.