Sailors urged to 'let go of anger' over slayings

[unhappycamper]

Servicemembers and Department of Defense personnel stationed at Bahrain gather gather during a memorial ceremony for Seaman Genesia Gresham and Seaman Anamarie Camacho.


Sailors urged to 'let go of anger' over slayings
By Scott Schonauer, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, October 30, 2007


MANAMA, Bahrain — Some sailors are “quite angry” about the slayings of two colleagues, but the community needs to let go of that feeling, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff said Monday.

Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and 5th Fleet, spoke at a packed memorial service for Seamen Anamarie Camacho and Genesia Mattril Gresham, both members of Naval Security Force Bahrain.

Nearly 350 sailors packed a multipurpose room on base Monday to remember both women exactly one week after their deaths. The initial shock of the shootings has faded and turned to anger among some sailors.

That was clear from the remarks by the Navy leaders who spoke at the memorial ceremony. Commanders are doing their best to soothe those crushed by the deaths. For those still fuming over the tragedy, they preached forgiveness.

The morning of Oct. 22, fellow security forces member Clarence Jackson allegedly shot both sailors in their on-base barracks and then turned the gun on himself in a failed suicide, sources say.

Navy doctors pronounced Camacho and Gresham dead on the scene. Jackson clings to life at the Navy hospital in Bethesda, Md.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49879