Bomb Kills Single Dad Serving In Iraq

[Barrett808]

Bomb Kills Single Dad Serving In Iraq
By JULIE PACE [e-mail]
Published: May 22, 2005

TAMPA - Andrea Pringle had been busy planning a party. Her 22-year-old son, Antwan Walker, was coming home to celebrate his birthday after serving a year in Iraq.

``Coming home - that was all he could talk about,'' Pringle said.

On Thursday, Pringle got a call from her brother. He said there was a man at her house who needed to talk to her.

In that moment, she knew.

Pringle said an Army representative told her that her son, an Army sergeant, had been killed the previous day by a bomb blast in Ramadi. The Department of Defense hasn't publicly confirmed Walker's death.

(more)

http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBN8KNQ09E.html

[OhioChick]

1. This is terrible...................n/t

[jobycom]

2. So sad. I grieve for every dad, mom, child, sibling, on both sides.

Bush should be imprisoned.

[Erika]

3. Bush's legacy

For what? At some point in time even the most dense of our citizens, will ask for what. Maybe they will link together that Bush's donors are the corporatist donors who were allowed to profit from this mess. Our kids died, his family and donors profited. Interesting to note is that the Saudis don't allow their women to vote but are welcomed at Crawford. The Saudis were also those who bombed us on 9/11.

[kaygore]

4. People older than Bush are serving over there

If he believes so much in this war, why isn't he over there fighting? Why hasn't he sent his daughters and Pickles? What about his druggie niece? Wouldn't a stint in the Army straighten her out?

[Blaze Diem]

5. Pathetic Bush..but Channel TLC (I think) will air an endearing tribute..

for Memorial weekend, about the wonderful reunion moments when the troops returned home.
It will be touching, heartwarming and "feelgood".
It shows little children reunited with their daddys.

Notice we were kept from being shown the OTHER REALITY OF BUSH'S WAR!

Coffins arriving in the States, families broken hearted, weeping, young children ALSO waiting for their daddys to come home, only to stand quielty, staring at the flag draped coffin of a man who sacrificed it all for BUSH'S BIG FAT LIE.

I'll have to find out which channel is hosting this show, I believe it was TLC, but i'll check for sure.
This made me sick as they showed the happy homecomings. Couldn't we possibly honor the victims of Bush's greed on Memorial weekend, by giving faces and names and family photos of each man/woman whose life ended because of BUSH'S BIG FAT LIE.

This story breaks my heart!

[Erika]

6. Dick Cheney said he had other priorities and didn't do Nam

That says it all.

[oasis]

7. I"ll bet the Antwan's mom has some choice words for Bush and Rummy.

[Barrett808]

13. Wonder if she knows about Military Families Speak Out n/t

[ausiedownunderground]

8. Why are they turning up at her brother's place first?

Is this "death" game some sort of male thing? He's a Single father! They rely on their Mother's "big time"! Why are the US military turning up at his mother's brother's place first. Too Scared maybe???

[dbt]

9. Mighta been his address of record.

But let's not let that distract us from the bigger questions here: Who lied us into this mess and how come his sorry ass ain't in prison?

:hi:

[MountainLaurel]

17. No, it was HER house

According to the article. But perhaps the brother lives there as well, or was visiting to prepare things for her son's return, or fix the broken pipe in the basement.

[rooboy]

10. Why not just send Bill O'Reilly over?

He can just snarl through his gutless baked-bean teeth and tell the family to "suck it up". :grr:

[leftchick]

11. omg, three children without a parent because of a LIAR!!!!!

This is so tragic. God forgive ameriKa...


~snip~

Walker called his family from Iraq often but didn't want to talk about war. Instead, he talked about coming home to start a career in real estate. He constantly reminded his mother to make sure his beloved Chevrolet Tahoe would be ready to drive when he returned. But mostly, Walker talked about his three children, who he had raised alone after his divorce. Walker's parents and aunts helped while Walker was overseas.

``He was such a good dad,'' Pringle said. ``All he wanted to do was make a good life for his kids.''

But last month, Walker wanted to talk about the fighting. He told his mother five soldiers he had been traveling with had been killed. After the incident, Walker's phone calls became more frequent.

``The last two weeks, we had been talking every day,'' Pringle said. ``Sometime he'd call two or three times a day.''

:cry:

[American in Asia]

12. Those poor children....

How tragic - for them, and the whole family.

No matter how many stories like this I read, they still make me cry. For them, for their families who needed them and loved them, for all of us.

:cry:

[fortyfeetunder]

14. It reminds me of a conversation long ago

after Vietnam but before the Gulf mess.

One of my professors was talking to me about general stuff and he lamented the fact how many young men feel it's the only option to join the military to get an education and a career. I believed this man would have rather seen these young men in his classroom....His words haunt me today.

[MADem]

15. Here is a companion article on leaving Iraq

These young junior officers want to leave alive, though.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-captains22may22,0,7863499.story?coll=la-home-headlines

KILLEEN, Texas — Army Capts. Dave Fulton and Geoff Heiple spent 12 months dodging roadside bombs and rounding up insurgents along Baghdad's "highway of death" — the six miles of pavement linking downtown Baghdad to the capital city's airport. Two weeks after returning stateside to Ft. Hood, they ventured to a spartan conference room at the local Howard Johnson to find out about changing careers.

Lured by a headhunting firm that places young military officers in private-sector jobs, the pair, both 26, expected anonymity in the crowded room. Instead, as Fulton and Heiple sipped Budweisers pulled from Styrofoam coolers next to the door, they spotted nearly a dozen familiar faces from their cavalry battalion, which had just ended a yearlong combat tour in Iraq.

War without end, amen....

The shocks of recognition came as they exchanged quick, awkward glances with others from their unit, each man clearly surprised to see someone else considering a life outside the military.

"This is a real eye-opener," said Fulton, a West Point graduate who saw a handful of cadets from his class. "It seems like everyone in the room is either from my squad or from my class."

[Barrett808]

16. "The undefined goals of the war on terror"

"I still don't know if we can make it," said a senior Army officer at the Pentagon. "You tell me what Iraq is going to look like next year."

I'd listen to these guys.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. I just read this story...

His outfit lost 5 people shortly before his death and the story said he had not been reported by the DOD... Makes one wonder how many we're not hearing about.

[leftchick]

20. The Pentagon Would Not Lie....

They have NO way of circumventing the process!!! Or so I have been told here on DU. Perhaps we will all found out the truth 10 or 15 years from now.

[Hand]

19. FOR A PACK OF LIES...... nt