Father knew what Guard visit meant

[Omaha Steve]

Full story reg req: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=1638&u_sid=2217687



Published Thursday
August 3, 2006

Father knew what Guard visit meant

BY DEREK KRAVITZ

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

PENDER, Neb. - When Lonnie Ford got the visit from three representatives of the Nebraska Army National Guard on Monday night, he knew why they had come.


Lonnie Ford says son Joshua left an audio will that said he "just wanted everyone to celebrate his life after he was gone."

"They didn't know much. But I knew my son, Josh, was gone," Ford said today.

His 20-year-old son, Spc. Joshua Ford, was killed when an improvised explosive device ripped through the truck he was driving Monday near the southern Iraq town of An Numaniyah.

A second Nebraska soldier, Spc. Benjamin Marksmeier, 20, of Beemer, was seriously wounded.

"I trembled, I cried, and then I knew what I had to do. I had to go see everyone and tell them what had happened," Lonnie Ford said.

Ford and his wife, Linda, got into their car and drove all night to visit other members of the family. They traveled to Wayne, then North Bend, then Omaha and back to North Bend before heading home to Pender.


Joshua Ford

Linda, Joshua Ford's stepmother, drove. The chaplains who visited their home had cautioned Ford against making long drives.

"We drove until 9:30 the next morning. It was the most awful thing I ever had to do," Lonnie Ford said.


Lonnie Ford and his wife, Linda, embrace after a press conference Thursday where he talked about his son Joshua who was killed in Iraq this week.

[bigscott]

1. god bless them

and ease their pain

I hate * and his phony war. Maybe barbara and jenna should enlist in joshua's stead

[yellerpup]

2. Remembering Joshua with love

and wishing peace for every soul in the world.

[Freedomofspeech]

3. My family had that visit during the Vietnam war...

my brother was killed, and none of our lives were ever the same. This government is shameless and evil. When I think my brother volunteered to go to Vietnam, and none of these evil chickenhawks ever went to war, it just makes my blood boil. They will rot in their own hell, whatever it may be.