I KNEW ALL OF THEM, EVEN IN THE DARK

Families across USA mourn Hawaii-based Marines

HONOLULU (AP) - They came from the four corners of America and states in between. From Florida to New Hampshire, California to Oregon, families shared their grief Thursday for Hawaii-based troops who died on the deadliest day since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Evelyn and Leroy Hernandez, of Canyon Lake mourn their son Cpl Leroy Hernandez, Jr., who died with 31 others.
A day after the news that all 31 Marines and a Navy medic aboard a CH-53E Super Stallion were killed when it crashed in a sandstorm, some families went public with names. The Pentagon said it would release no information about the victims until all families were notified.
The helicopter went down as troops were being transported in election security operations. The military was investigating cause of the crash and gave no indication there was enemy fire.
At least 27 of the dead were based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay, according to Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, who said he was informed of the loss by the Marines on Wednesday. It was the single worst loss of Hawaii troops since the attack on Pearl Harbor more than 60 years ago.
The helicopter crew was from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.
The parents of Navy corpsman John Daniel House told the Ventura County (Calif.) Star of how their son, a medic attached to the Marine unit and the only sailor to die in the crash, wrote letters home describing the camaraderie and responsibility he felt for his fellow soldiers.

"In one of the letters, he wrote, 'I know all of them ... even in the dark, by their mannerisms,'" Susan House of Simi Valley, Calif., read, choking back tears. '"I don't know how I am going to deal with losing any of them. It is my job to take care of them and keep them safe.'"
Susan and Larry House appeared on ABC's Good Morning America Thursday morning to talk about their son, a 28-year-old Pearl Harbor sailor who was also a new father - his wife Melanie gave birth to the son he would never see, James Cash, on Christmas Eve.
The crew chief onboard the helicopter, Lance Cpl. Tony Hernandez, deployed to Iraq last summer, was scheduled to return to Camp Pendleton in March, said his father, Leroy Hernandez, of Canyon Lake, Texas, who last spoke with his son on Sunday.
"He said it was cold, that he didn't like the weather, that he was working his butt off - the usual gripes," Hernandez said. "He didn't say a lot because he didn't want anyone to worry."
Ohio lost at least three Marines in the crash.
Killed were Cpl. Richard Gilbert Jr., 28, of Dayton, Lance Cpl. Jonathan Edward Etterling, 22, of Wheelersburg, and Michael Finke Jr., 28, of Wadsworth, family members said.
Etterling, of Wheelersburg, Ohio, had just talked to his parents on Saturday, telling them he was tired and had lost more than 15 pounds. They were informed by the military on Wednesday that he had died in the crash.
"I went in to change clothes and when I saw the Marines in the house, I prayed, 'Let him be wounded, let him be wounded,'" said his father, William Etterling. "My heart just fell."
Finke, of Wadsworth, Ohio, a Marine for nine years, had told his family a day earlier that he was headed on a special mission.
His stepmother said she doesn't believe there is any justification for the war that claimed his life.
"I'm sure there are many other parents out there that don't think there is, either," Nadine Finke said.
Alexander and Lynn Kelly of Pitman, N.J., told a Philadelphia television station that their son, Cpl. Sean Kelly, 23, was due to leave Iraq on Feb. 7 and go to Kuwait. They said they last spoke to their son on Monday.
Alexander Kelly said his son planned to re-enlist and make the service his career.
"Since high school, he wanted to be a Marine, and he did what he wanted to do. He just always wanted to be a Marine," he said.
In Florida, Belga Saintvil said he feared the worst when he learned that a helicopter carrying Marines crashed in an Iraq desert sandstorm, killing all aboard.
He told Orlando television station WESH that his son, Spc. Gael Saintvil, 24, was among the victims of Wednesday's crash.
"It happened for a good cause, for the country. ... Don't like it, but what's happened has happened," he said.
Cpl. James Lee Moore's family heard of the 24-year-old Roseburg, Ore.-native's death on Wednesday night, when several Marines came to their door, his stepmother, Suzanne Moore, told The Associated Press.
"It still hasn'd sunk in," she said. "We can't get past, 'We regret to inform you.'"
In New Hampshire, family members told WMUR-TV that Cpl. Timothy Gibson, 23, of Merrimack, was also on the helicopter that crashed.
His family told the television station that Gibson had enlisted in the Marine Corps before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A younger brother, also a Marine, also served in Iraq, but now is stationed in the United States.
Utah mourned Matthew Smith, 24, of West Valley City.
Hector Ramos, 20, of Chicago suburb Aurora, Ill., was inspired to join the Marines after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said his mother, Nancy Ramos.
"When 9-11 happened, the first day he went to go sign up. He came home from school, and he told me, 'I signed up. I need to do this. I always wanted to,'" his mother, Nancy Ramos, told WLS-TV Thursday in Chicago. "I am the proud mother of a Marine."

See also:

http://worldwatchenigma.blogspot.com/2005/11/no-answer-on-status-of-captured-g-i.html

http://icasualties.org/oif/default.aspx