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Published on Sunday, December 19, 2004 by the Star Tribune / Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dead Troops Leave Kids Behind
Editorial
Television has done a magnificent job of memorializing troops who lose their lives in Iraq. But perhaps it needs to broaden the criteria to include another group affected by this horrible war: the children of those killed. The Scripps Howard News Service reports that through November, almost 900 American children had a parent among the 1,256 troops killed in Iraq.
The proportions are unprecedented, and explained by two factors: In the professional military, troops tend to be older, to be married and to have children. Too, the war in Iraq has seen unparalleled use of reserve and National Guard troops, who also tend to be older people with families.
When Scripps Howard reporters dug deeper into the statistics they found other profoundly unsettling things.
Among the dead were six mothers, who together left behind 10 children. Also among the dead were almost 50 men who died without ever seeing their children. In 34 cases, their wives were pregnant when the men died, while 15 wives gave birth after their husbands deployed.
These are cold statistics that, however grim, fail to convey the tragedies involved. Personal stories do that, however. One in the Scripps report was Army 1st Lt. Doyle Hufstedler, 25, of Abilene, Texas. When he died, he carried in his pocket a sonogram of his unborn daughter.
Most wrenching was the story of Jack Shanaberger: "Sad to the depths of his 4-year-old soul, Jack Shanaberger knew what he didn't want to be when he grows up: a father.
" 'I don't want to be a daddy because daddies die,' the child solemnly told his mother" after his father was killed in Iraq.
We all know that war claims lives. But it is so easy to forget that war forever changes the lives of those who survive at home. This is one more reason the words of Sen. John Kerry, spoken at the Democratic Convention in Boston, deserve to live long beyond his candidacy. He said that before you go to war, you must be able to look a parent in the eye and say you've done everything possible to avoid this, but it is necessary. We'd only add that you also need to make the same profession to the spouses and children who will be left behind.
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