Chardon Wife Wanted Call Before Husband Died In Iraq

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Wife Of Slain Soldier Thinks Family Call Should Be Policy

POSTED: 9:42 am EST March 7, 2004

CHARDON, Ohio -- The family of an Ohio soldier killed in Iraq says the military needs a better way for relatives to reach injured soldiers overseas.

The wife of Army Staff Sgt. Sean Landrus wishes she had gotten a chance to say goodbye. Chris Landrus says one call isn't too much to ask.

The soldier died Jan. 29 in a hospital in Iraq from wounds he suffered from a roadside bomb two days earlier. His family says they didn't find out how bad his injuries were until after he died.

Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette wants the Defense Department to do more to give families immediate telephone access to the places where wounded soldiers are treated.
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http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2903041/detail.html

[AP]

1. Put phone cards in your care packages to soldiers, eh?

[anarchy1999]

2. We have to ask for this consideration?

We ought not have to ask, much less fight for this right. Who are these people??

They keep mom's and dad's away from their dying kids? How Inhumane does it get from here?

If my daughter was over there I would be a raving maniac.

Mari333, I don't know how you and yours do it.

I want them all home NOW! Not tommorrow, not in a month or two, not yesterday. I want them all home NOW!!

It is was an illegal war and it is an illegal occupation.

BRING OUR KIDS HOME NOW!

[anarchy1999]

3. I guess getting to call home as you are dying is just asking for too much.

M - F"RS.

One call is not too much to ask for.

Military Families Speak Out, Reach out and touch this family and all the other families. Let our Voices Be Loud.

[Mari333]

4. We havent gotten one call from Michael from Iraq

just emails, but anything is good each day because we know he is alive. We cant think about anything else all day, and even tho we function and try to actually do normal everyday things, its always there that we might get the "call" from the army or someone driving up in the driveway and telling us the worst. Its never a normal day for us, or as my husband said "god. we have been thru better times in our lives."
I wrote a letter to the Nation, which they are printing they said, and stated "will there be anyone with Michael if he dies? will someone hold his hand? can we say goodbye to him? will there be anyone there with him holding him when he is scared?"
those are the thoughts people have
the military has this testosterone chest thumping bullshit problem where the families are considered a pain in the ass to them..I cant even get thru to anyone on the phone at most of the numbers they gave me..this woman on here is mad and she should be...
They take our loved ones and then they spit on us as families.

[anarchy1999]

5. I don't have a family member in Iraq or Afghan but I feel as though I do.

This shit is making me crazy.

The disregard for our peoples safety is making me nuts. Don't even get me started on what is happening to the people that live there. Just think how you would feel if the US had been invaded by China and Russia for the US WMD's and our helping in the proliferation of such.

How would you feel if we were all rounded up and sent to a prison camp for being suspect with someone not in support of the new "regime".

We, the people of America, have a short amount of time left, to let the rest of the world know they deserve their support of us as "Americans". Patience is wearing thin, I do believe.

[cmd]

6. Longer article in the Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/iraq/index.ssf?/base/news/1078655844289510.xml

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. Thanks. Sadder still. n/t

[progressivebydesign]

8. Very sad.. war sucks.

I guess that people forget that in most wars in the past, and those fought by countries without our riches, families cherish the one or two letters a year they might get from their loved one in battle. It would be really great if people could talk to their wounded family member... but we have to remember that they are in a war, not on a church skiing trip. There are hardships, and communication problems, and perhaps the cruelest of them is that there is so little contact, even when they are wounded. I"m not saying that the Pentagon shouldn't try harder to connect the wounded with their family (many families do get to talk to their wounded soldiers), but war is hell. In a non-draft military.. these are the horrible realities of life you sign up for. It must be hell for the families, every day. I don't know how they do it.

[Bridget Burke]

9. Really, "not a church skiing trip"? I didn't realize!

Communication methods are more advanced now than in previous wars. There is no technical reason why telephone calls could not be easier to make--especially for those in special circumstances. Of course, Halliburton is probably in charge of these support functions & equipment is expensive.

"They signed up, so f*ck them & their families." You'll be getting several responses to your message.

[w4rma]

10. However, the folks getting wealthy off of this war have the resources to

give our soldiers these amenities.

If Bush would divert more tax dollars to our soldiers and less towards Haliburton, this wouldn't be a problem.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

11. The "war is hell" bullshit doesn't wash here...

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer ( http://www.cleveland.com/iraq/index.ssf?/base/news/1078655844289510.xml ) :


Thompson Township- Bad news rang Chris Landrus late in the afternoon on Jan. 27. The call was about her husband, Sean, an Army staff sergeant stationed in Iraq. There had been an accident.

An Army captain outlined the soldier's injuries - a broken leg, shrapnel in the abdomen, gunshot wounds to the arms and legs. The captain didn't share much else.

The next day, an Army official gave an uplifting report: "It looks like he's going to make it."

A little more than 24 hours later, two soldiers delivered the worst knock possible to the door of the young family's Geauga County home. The soldier's wife knew the message before a word came out.

Injured to OK to dead. Just like that.

Anger is supplanting grief as Landrus' family considers how poorly the military communicated with them about the soldier's mortal wounds. They didn't learn the full extent of his injuries until being told by a local funeral home that they couldn't have an open casket.
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This is a prime example of the "put on a happy face" crap we've been seeing since before they told us about the heroic rescue of Jessica Lynch.

My god, a military compund was attacked this morning and the military basically said it didn't know anything for several hours... Until they found out what the press knew about the attacks.