Posted on 07/26/2010 1:18:09 AM PDT by naturalman1975
The sister of a war hero who died in Afghanistan sold his uniform and medals to an eBay trader to fund a luxury cruise for herself.
Corporal Rob Deering left his elder sister everything in his will, including four war medals, his uniform and an engraved memorial shell casing from his funeral.
......
Corporal Deering, a Royal Marine with the Commando Logistic Regiment, died in December 2008 as he raced to help injured comrades whose armoured Viking personnel carrier had been blown up by insurgents.
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In April Miss Deering put a number of stuffed birds up for sale on online auction website eBay. She was contacted by trader John Langley, who travelled from his home in Cheshire to buy them.
Then Miss Deering, in the presence of her mother Karen Waspe, offered him her brother’s medals, uniform and the shell casing, one of three fired over his coffin at a memorial service held in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.
Mr Langley, 67, said: ‘As an ex-serviceman myself, I couldn’t believe the family of a fallen soldier who died in a war that was still going on would offer me his medals.
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‘But I admit as a collector it was a once-in-a-lifetime deal. I knew I’d get a big price for them from other collectors. It’s unheard of to have a full set of medals and uniforms from a soldier who has only just died.’
Mr Langley was offered £4,000 for the collection by another trader, but turned it down after becoming uneasy about the sale.
He researched Corporal Deering and, when he learned the circumstances of his death, ‘felt sick’.
He tracked down the soldier’s fiancee and gave her the mementos for free.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Some people don’t deserve the freedom that brave men like the commando died for. His sister, for example.
Sickening
Hard to believe that to this sister it was just so much stuff. Although at least she thought to keep two of the spent cartridges. Hopefully one for her and one for her mum. (”Oh no - I think I know someone that will give me even MORE money for them!”)
Reminds me of my old man as we were gathered around his death bed. My mom asked “Would you mind if I sold the condo?” My old man replied with a chuckle “Would I mind!?”
She would have sold his corpse if someone offered money for it.
He tracked down the soldier’s fiancee and gave her the mementos for free.
Good man.
Which is worse- a sister who doesn't understand the medals and mementos enough to value them, or someone who feels the need to further embarass the soldier's memory by publishing "dirty laundry" about his family in the paper? It's a good thing the man purchased the items and found a way to return them to someone whom the soldier loved, but why did the press need to know about it?
I absolutely think that woman needs to be exposed, like tied to a stake in her neighborhood with a sign on her neck.
She deserves all the bad publicity she is going to get, and Medea Benjamin will come over and pay all her bills and Adam Kokesh will have her speak at his next protest and WWP will write an editorial for her praising her for not agreeing with Bush’s imperialism!
She deserves what she is going to get.
The fact that he left everything to his sister and not his mother or fiance makes me think that he and his sister were very close.
I agree that it was probably depression and need to escape from the fact of his death that led her to sell them.
Or, I could be wrong. But I was thinking the same way you were when I read the article.
Thanks for the laugh!
A terrible story though. She dishonors the memory of that troopeer.
regards,
trooper
Well there’s one silver lining to this terrible story: thousands of people got to read about the sacrifice of Corporal Deering. In a better world, our press would be reporting incidents like this to us daily.
I want to buy a “C”.
How disgusting. Words fail me.
Could have been an old will that was not updated when he got engaged. If she was starving this might have been honorable behaviour otherwise it is a display of moral turpitude.
Maybe, but I have seen people sell homes, collections, even family photos at yard sales after the death of a loved one. They just are in serious depression and want to seperate themselves from the immediate pain.
Most people, should they follow your advise, would be left with no judgment at all and feel discomfort. So they prefer a quick one, and truth be d-mned.
Thank you for your insightful and moral observation. The outcome is indeed shocking and troubling, but the story is ultimately about subtle manipulation of the public by newspapers. This story could've have easily been about the irrationality and out-of-character behaviors that severely depressed people adopt.
It well may be that the woman was lamenting, "I was depressed... I don't know what I was thinking, I can't believe now what I have done... And I sold.. on eBay." Sounds like soul-searching, but cut out the middle part and arrive at "I was depressed... and sold on eBay," which is coldblooded egotism.
I don't know the details here, but the reporting is certainly at the level of a TV soap and uses the same tactics to pinch the readers' hearts.
It does amaze me how easily people, even conservatives, blame others without any basis. Whatever happened to the Commandment against serving as false witness?
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