Free Republic

ROCHESTER, Mich. (WJBK) - Lieutenant colonel Sherwood Baker was just a father trying to help his daughter find her way at her new high school. Sherwood who has served in the Army for 24 years was told by Rochester Adams high school security that if he wanted to get into the high school with his daughter he was going to have to go home and change his clothes. Baker's wife Rachel Ferhadson says, "before he was allowed in, the security guard stopped him and said sorry you're not allowed in the school. Security told him men and women in uniform...

Celeste Zappala always believed her son Sherwood Baker was headed for great things. But he never made it past age 30. On April 26, 2004, the sergeant with the 109th Field Artillery was killed by an explosion in Baghdad, leaving a wife and then-9-year-old son behind in Plymouth Borough. "You live with it. But there's no way to make it right. I miss him every day," Zappala said, growing choked up. "We live in another universe now. I can see what the old universe looks like, but we are in another universe. "No more blood," she said, and started to...

Families of U.S. troops have long adhered to a clan code that prohibits speaking out against a war. Now some are going public over Iraq.PHILADELPHIA — In Love Plaza, about 75 people mingled in bright sunshine, chatting noisily while one speaker after another droned on at a campaign rally. Vendors hawked T-shirts, and children frolicked in a fountain opposite ornate City Hall. Then Celeste Zappala stepped onstage. Standing between columns of red, white and blue balloons, she held up the Purple Heart awarded posthumously to her oldest son. The plaza fell silent. In calm, measured tones, Zappala talked about her...

She didn't want him to go. What mother would? But Sherwood Baker, a sergeant in the National Guard, was an honorable man, and Celeste Zappala, a longtime Philadelphia peace activist, respected that. When the call to Iraq came, she let him go. Now he's gone forever. Baker, 30, of Plymouth, was killed Monday when a suspected chemical warehouse exploded in Baghdad. He left behind a wife, a son, his parents, two brothers and countless friends. He was an Eagles fan, a rap music aficionado, and a technology fiend. Yesterday, state flags in Luzerne and Lackawanna counties were flown at half-staff...

Sherwood Baker's family and friends are still in shock, still half-expecting the tall, outgoing young man with the friendly smile to come walking through the door. Monday afternoon the 30-year-old sergeant with the 109th Field Artillery was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, by a large explosion while performing site security, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Family and close friends gathered at Sherwood and his wife Debra Baker's house in Plymouth Borough Tuesday to mourn the loss of the young man who loved and was loved by many in the Wyoming Valley. Ann Warman, Sherwood Baker's mother-in-law, remembered how her...

WILKES-BARRE - Maggie Jones said her sister used to stay up late and listen to student disc jockey Sherwood Baker's voice on the King's College radio station. "She thought he (had) the most handsome voice ever," Maggie said. Debra started calling the station while Sherwood was on the air, requesting songs and chatting with him. Maggie came home one day and Sherwood was at their house with Debra, the woman he would eventually marry. Maggie and her husband, Mark Jones, reminisced Wednesday about their brother-in-law, one of two soldiers killed Monday in a building explosion in Baghdad. Maggie said military...