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    Alabama's Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror
    Alabama's Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror
    Alabama's Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror
    Ebook329 pages1 hour

    Alabama's Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror

    By Jane Self

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    About this ebook

    After Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States officially launched the War on Terror, nearly 7,000 U.S. troops gave their lives supporting the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an estimated one million or more were wounded. Of the casualties, 139 grew up in Alabama or lived part of their lives there. Four of the servicemen and servicewomen killed in the Pentagon on Sept. 11 had ties to Alabama as well.

    The deaths of these troops impacted thousands of people – parents, children, spouses, other family members, friends, classmates, military buddies.

    “Alabama’s Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror” continues a project started in 2006 by The Tuscaloosa News profiling those who died. This book is intended to give at least a brief view of these men and women, plus the 45 who have died since the newspaper series ended, as their families and communities knew them. Their stories need to be told and preserved. Those who died in service to their country should never be forgotten.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJane Self
    Release dateJul 17, 2015
    ISBN9781310487798
    Alabama's Fallen Warriors: The price one state paid for the war on terror
    Author

    Jane Self

    Jane Self is a 20-year newspaper veteran who was Features Editor at The Tuscaloosa News when the Fallen Warriors series began. After taking early retirement in 2007, she continued writing the articles on a freelance basis until the series ended in 2009.Prior to her newspaper career, Jane was a planner for the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation and an educator for almost a decade in Louisiana and Alabama.She is now a freelance writer and editor living in Durham, North Carolina. She can be reached at jane@janeself.com.

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      Book preview

      Alabama's Fallen Warriors - Jane Self

      Special Acknowledgments

      Alabama’s Fallen Warriors started as an effort by The Tuscaloosa News to pay tribute to the servicemen and servicewomen with ties to Alabama who had lost their lives in the Global War on Terror.

      My sincerest thanks to the members of the editorial staff who believed in the project and devoted their time and talents to developing and sustaining it. Executive Editor Doug Ray and Managing Editor Gregory Enns graciously agreed to devote valuable newspaper space to the stories each week on the front page of the local news section.

      News Librarian Betty Slowe diligently compiled the original list of troops who had died in the years before we started the project, so that we could cover those losses retroactively. She maintained the database and archived the stories as they were written over the course of the entire series.

      Copy Desk Chief Amy Robinson guided the layout and copyediting of the weekly articles and helped keep up with the casualty notices that moved on the wire, always on the lookout for photographs to accompany the stories.

      The remaining editors on the team – Michael James, Katherine Lee and Steve Reeves - generously gave their time to carefully edit the articles, even after I left the newspaper in 2007 but continued to submit the stories on a freelance basis.

      The profiles were published for more than three years – from November 2005 to May 2009. The newspaper editorial staff ended the series at that time because we erroneously thought we had covered all the losses that had or would occur. Sadly, that was not the case, and this book encompasses every casualty through March 2015.

      A special thanks goes to my friends who supported the creation of this book because they believed in the contribution it could be. Ann Wilson did a final edit on the contents, and Bernard Fertal turned an idea in my head into the striking book cover.

      Finally, deep love and appreciation goes to my son, Nathaniel Taylor, whose quiet strength, compassion and courage inspired me to be able to conduct the interviews and write the stories in the first place.

      — Jane Self

      Background of Fallen Warriors project

      Marine Cpl. Matthew Conley and his wife, Nicole, were looking forward to the birth of their first child in March 2006. After six months in Iraq, Conley was coming home for the event and couldn’t wait. He had been reading books about being a father, despite relentless teasing from his fellow Marines.

      On Feb. 19, 2006, two days before he was scheduled to start out-processing, an exploding bomb shattered all dreams of fatherhood. Instead of celebrating a happy homecoming, his family buried him a week later on his 22nd birthday. Nicole gave birth to their daughter, Catherine, 25 days after Matthew died.

      Matthew and Nicole were childhood sweethearts in Greenhill, Alabama, who met in fourth grade and started dating in the eighth. They married right out of high school when both were 19. Nicole said she wants her daughter to know everything about her father and what a fine person he was. She tells Catherine stories every night.

      They are not long stories, just little tidbits of what I remember, Nicole said. Sometimes, I just tell her that her daddy had beautiful blue eyes or that he had a great personality and that he loved her. I try to make sure he’s part of every day.

      * * *

      Conley is one 143 troops with ties to Alabama who have died in the line of duty in the decade and a half since the beginning of the Global War on Terror.

      International terrorism was not on the average American’s mind on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Those with family and friends in military service weren’t particularly worried about the possibility of their loved ones being involved in combat in a foreign land.

      Then two planes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Without warning, 2,977 people lost their lives on that single day, all on American soil. The events changed everything.

      Within a month, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and initiated Operation Iraqi Freedom almost a year and a half later, on March 19, 2003.

      The U.S. officially withdrew troops from Iraq in late 2011 and began the process in Afghanistan in late 2014. At publication of this book, approximately 13,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan and about 3,000 have been redeployed to Iraq to train and advise Iraqi military in their fight against a more recent terrorist threat - ISIS, the self-proclaimed Islamic State.

      In the 14 years since the terrorist attacks on the United States, 6,849 U.S. troops have died in these two wars, and an estimated one million or more have been wounded. Of the casualties, 139 were individuals who grew up in Alabama or lived part of their lives there. Four of the servicemen and women killed in the Pentagon on Sept. 11 had ties to Alabama as well.

      The deaths of these troops have impacted thousands of people – parents, children, spouses, other family members, friends, classmates, military buddies.

      The purpose of this book is to honor the memory of those who paid the ultimate price for freedom and to acknowledge the cost to one state of the years our country has been actively engaged in the fight against terrorism.

      The profiles included here are intended to pay tribute and bear witness to the lives of these men and women as contributing members of their families and communities. Their stories need to be told and preserved. Those who died in service to their country should never be forgotten.

      * * *

      Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq continued to rise in the first few years following the Sept. 11 tragedies. By late 2005, there was still no end in sight for either war.

      I was Features Editor for The Tuscaloosa News at the time, and together with the newspaper’s other editors, was tasked with brainstorming how best to handle our coverage of the ongoing conflicts. We agreed we wanted to put a more personal spin on the reporting, to bring the experience home in such a way that our readers would be able to connect with what was going on halfway around the world.

      Many ideas surfaced, but the one we all liked best was developing a series of profiles on the Alabama servicemen and women who had died since the War on Terror began. The goal would be to bring the statistics to life by giving our state’s casualties a human face. Rather than simply learning each individual’s name, rank and serial number, readers would have the opportunity to get to know these troops, in terms of their hopes and dreams, what they loved to do and what made them special.

      The next critical step was to assign the right reporter to cover this sensitive issue. Gathering the kind of information we were looking for would involve interviewing grieving mothers, wives or other family members, and it would not be easy. We needed someone who could handle the challenge.

      Without a moment’s hesitation, I volunteered for the job. It seemed a natural fit – I was a mother, and my only child was a soldier who had been right in the middle of one of the wars. I knew I had to be the one to write these profiles.

      I had endured my own version of the emotional havoc experienced by families of service members who are in harm’s way. My son was part of the invading forces sent into Iraq on March 19, 2003. For weeks, I had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Like 250,000 other moms, I couldn’t take my eyes off the television, continuously scouring footage of the troops moving forward, searching for a glimpse of him. Finally I heard from a reporter who was embedded with my son’s unit and had spoken with him.

      A few months later, my son was back safely in Germany where he was stationed, and was able to fly home to Georgia in time for his wedding in July that year. We were lucky, and we knew it.

      I never forgot those endless days of pure terror when my son was beyond my reach. I had a hard time sleeping or thinking clearly for fear of what could happen. It was a miserable time.

      Though families of the fallen experienced far worse pain and grief than I could fathom, I could unequivocally empathize with the devastation they faced when the knock on the door came. The very least I could do was make sure each lost hero was remembered, acknowledged and honored.

      For the most part, families were glad to talk to me. They wanted us to remember their loved ones, to let the world know how funny or smart their little boy or girl was. They appreciated the chance to talk about their fallen warriors and the difference they made to people in their lives.

      I cried with the family members and friends mourning their lost soldiers. As they shared stories about their sons or daughters growing up, I often envisioned my own son’s childhood and teenage years.

      And

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