Tonight we remember four soldiers - Spc. Ezra Dawson, of Las Vegas, Nevada, who died recently in Afghanistan; Pfc. Matthew M. Pollini, of Rockland, Massachusetts, who died recently in Iraq; and Pfc. Julian Harold Rogers, of Bloomington, Indiana, and Pvt. Henry E. Marquez, of Kansas City, Kansas, who died together in World War II and whose remains have recently been identified.
Please join me below to learn more about these four soldiers whose commitment to their country will not be forgotten.
The photo above and some of those below are of the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in the village of Margraten, where both Julian Rogers and Henry Marquez, along with other missing from World War II, have been engraved on tablets that line the court of the memorial. When the missing are recovered and identified, a rosette is placed by their names. The statue in the photo faces a reflecting pool and represents a mother grieving her lost son.
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EZRA DAWSON: "He wanted to better himself"
On Friday the Department of Defense announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom:
Spc. Ezra Dawson, 31, of Las Vegas, Nev., died Jan. 17 in Konar Province, Afghanistan when the Chinook helicopter he was in made a hard landing under combat conditions. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
Dawson was the son of a preacher and grew up in Oklahoma, according to his ex-wife, Felicia Tucker, who had stayed in touch with him after their divorce. She described him as an upbeat, happy may who had at times been a rapper and a stand-up comedian.
He joined the army in September 2004 and had been in Afghanistan since July 2008. "He wanted to better himself, so he figured that would be the way," Tucker said.
This was all I was able to find about this man with an unforgettable smile. If anyone finds additional information, please post it in the comments and I'll update the diary to include it.
May he rest in peace.
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MATTHEW M. POLLINI: "He's not like any other guy in the world"
On Friday the Department of Defense also announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Pfc. Matthew M. Pollini, 21, of Rockland Mass., died Jan. 22 at Forward Operating Base Delta, near al-Kut, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 772nd Military Police Company, Taunton, Mass. The incident is under investigation.
The second of six brothers and sisters, Matthew Pollini attended Rockland High School and later earned his GED. "He was a great kid," assistant principal Sue Patton said. "Many people here highly regarded him. He was employed for several years at a local supermarket, where he worked his way up from bagger to a job in the meat department.
Pollini enlisted in the army in 2005. His National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq in December, just four days after he and his wife, Sarah, were married. "We had lots of plans," she said. "He's not like any other guy in the world," she said.
Among the couple's plans were to buy a house and to renew their vows at their "dream wedding" on their one-year anniversary. Pollini wanted to become a state trooper or a firefighter eventually, and his sister Erica said he joined the military police as a start.
Pollini's family friends described him as a jokester and a goofball who "could make anything fun." His brother Joseph recalled that Matthew was talented at doing impersonations and had perfected the character Quagmire from Family Guy. Erica Pollini said that Matthew was the first person to make her two-year-old daughter belly-laugh and also noted her brother's knack for building things, including a dollhouse he had recently made for his wife.
Joseph Pollini, who is a member of the same National Guard unit as his older brother, said of Matthew: "He was a hero, a hands down hero.... A very inspiring kid. He was my mentor. My best friend. He taught me everything I know." He added that enlisting in the military "was something we always wanted to do - serve our country.... It's loyalty, something we both learned - be loyal to something you love."
Video clips of local news reports are here, here here, here, and here.
May he rest in peace.
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The identification of two soldiers who went missing in action during World War II was announced on Friday:
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of two U.S. servicemen, missing from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.
They are Pfc. Julian H. Rogers, of Bloomington, Ind, and Pvt. Henry E. Marquez, of Kansas City, Kan. Both men were U.S. Army. Rogers will be buried in the spring in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., and Marquez will be buried on May 30 in Kansas City, Mo.
Representatives from the Army's Mortuary Office met with the next-of-kin of these men in their hometowns to explain the recovery and identification process and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.
In November 1944, the 112th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, was attacking east through the Hürtgen Forest in an attempt to capture the German towns of Vossenack and Schmidt. On Nov. 4, the Germans counterattacked in what would become one of the longest running battles in U.S. history. Rogers and Marquez, both members of G Company, 112th Infantry Regiment, were reported killed in action near Vossenack on Nov. 4. Their bodies were not recovered.
In 2007, a German citizen searching for wartime relics in the Hürtgen Forest uncovered human remains and military identification tags for Rogers and Marquez. He notified U.S. officials and a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated the site later that year. The team recovered human remains and non-biological material. Among dental records, other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of the remains.
JULIAN HAROLD ROGERS: "He'll always be honored"
Julian H. Rogers, who was known by his middle name, Harold, attended Bloomington (Indiana) High School. He married his high school sweetheart, Elsie, in November 1941, when they were both just 18 years old. She described him as easygoing, with a good sense of humor. Their daughter, Connie, was born in December 1942.
Rogers was drafted in February 1943 and went overseas in March 1944. On Thanksgiving Day in 1944, his wife received the news that her husband had gone missing in action:
Her father had just offered a blessing for the family's holiday dinner when someone knocked on the door. She got up and answered it, she said, only to discover a man in front of a waiting taxicab with a telegram carrying the awful news.
Rogers was declared killed in action a few months later, but his wife was never able to learn more than that - until now. Their daughter, Connie (now Connie Conard), said she received a call last summer from a genealogist working on the case on the same day she found out that her grandson would be allowed the honor of placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington, D.C.
Items found with his body included his helmet, boots, canteen, gas mask, dog tag, and ammunition. "It's amazing, but horrible," his daughter said. "It's [the packet of information provided by the Defense Department] the only way I'll ever see my dad.... I thought he'd come back.... I really did."
Rogers' sister, Phyllis Weddle, now 78, was thirteen when her brother disappeared. Although the news has brought some closure for the family, she said, "I just wish my mother was here so she'd know. She really suffered over this."
Rogers' wife, Elsie Evans (she remarried after his death), is now 85. She and other family members will travel to Washington, D.C., for his burial at Arlington National Cemetery. "He'll always be honored if he's at Arlington. And that's the best I can do for him," she said.
May he rest in peace.
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HENRY E. MARQUEZ: "He was still missing in action to the family"
One of six children, Henry (Enrique, or "Rickey") Martinez was a talented young man:
He typed 100 words per minute. He sang and played the piano. As an expert woodworker, he fashioned fancy shelves that could fit into corners. He was a great hunter and sharp dresser given to hustling his many friends in pingpong games. He worked multiple jobs before leaving for the war at age 18.
His three remaining siblings spoke of him affectionately, recalling that his nickname for his brother Clark, who was only two years old when Marquez went to war, was "Little Sweets." Even after learning that Marquez had been killed in action, his family left his room untouched for years and saved his military life insurance for his return, continuing to hope that he was alive:
"He was still missing in action to the family," said sister Hildreth Stuart, 84. "You dream these impossible dreams. We just had fantasies."
Now the remaining siblings are planning Marquez's funeral, to be held in May:
"In these things, they talk about closure," Clark Marquez said. "We don't know precisely how he died, but we know where he died, and we brought him back home."
May he rest in peace.
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For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO website or call (703) 699-1420.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and families of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.
If you want to do something to assist our military and their families, please visit anysoldier.com or Fisher House. If you have frequent flyer miles you would like to donate to hospitalized veterans or their families, see Fisher House's Hero Miles program. If you would like to assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Sending a care package to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is; read how at anysoldier.com. Other ways to support the troops are in this diary. And don't forget them when they get home. Visit welcomebackveterans.org and Hire Heroes USA to learn what you can do.
As of this writing, 4,228 members of the U.S. armed services have been confirmed killed in action in Iraq, 4 are pending confirmation, and one is missing or captured; 317 other coalition forces have died. In Afghanistan, 641 U.S. forces and 421 other coalition forces have died. (The Department of Defense news releases can be found here.) More than 30,600 U.S. servicemen and women have been wounded in Iraq, and the suicide rate among servicemen and women is high. The death toll among Iraqis is unknown but is at least more than 90,000 and probably is in the hundreds of thousands. At least 153 journalists have been killed in Iraq during the war.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. The series, which was begun by i dunno, is currently maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, greenies, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, mediaprof, and me, roses. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but, we believe, an important service to those Americans who have died, and to our community's respect for and remembrance of them. If you would like to volunteer, even once a month, please contact Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, or noweasels.