Fran called me this afternoon. He told me that two soldiers with Maine ties died in Iraq over the weekend. One man is 48-year-old Staff Sergeant Dale James Kelly Junior, from Richmond, Maine. That isn't far from here and I wonder if someone I know is acquainted with his family.
The other is Staff Sergeant David Michael Veverka who was a student at University of Maine Orono; his hometown is in PA. These men were members of B Company, 3-172 Infantry Battalion of the Maine Army National Guard.
A third man, whom we can all pray for, is Private Christopher Fraser; he was injured but his injuries are not considered life threatening. Fraser is from Windsor, Maine and in the 1136th Transportation Company and attached to B Company. He is now recovering in medical facilities in Landstuhl, Germany.
For Fran it was a sober call to make. It effects them all very deeply in Mississippi where the men he left Maine with are training hard to do exactly what these men were sent to do.
Most of this information I got from my local tv station's web site. There isn't much in print about the men yet. Over the coming weeks, however, we will learn more about the lives they lived, the hopes their family had for their safe return, and the heroic way they served their country.
My heart aches.
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