Free Republic

Dorothy Oxendine presides over American Gold Star Mothers Inc., a national organization of women whose sons and daughters have died in military service to the nation. (Photo by Mark Abraham) AMERICAN IDENTITY With the Iraq War, a New Generation of Gold Star Mothers BY DELIA M. RIOS More stories by Delia M. Rios WASHINGTON -- As Dorothy Oxendine knows, the most dreaded words a parent can hear are "We regret to inform you ..." She lost her only son, Pfc. Willie F. Oxendine III, to a land mine in Vietnam on May 30, 1968. His death at age 21...

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (AP) - The price of war was evident Saturday in the grieving faces of Lance Cpl. Eric Orlowski's parents, his toddler daughter and in the clenched and quivering jaws of fellow Marines who gathered to bury him. "War is grim and ugly and not without cost," said the Rev. Joseph Penkaul who presided over Orlowski's funeral in this Buffalo suburb. One of the first U.S. servicemen to die in Iraq, Orlowski, 26, was killed March 22 in an accidental discharge of a .50-caliber machine gun. His body arrived home last week. "May we never forget that behind each...

Names of the four US Marines who died in yesterday's helicopter crash: Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, 36, of Waterville, Maine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, 30, of Bloomington, Ill. Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, 25, of Houston, Texas Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Watersbey, 29, of Baltimore, Md. The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.