From Today's Tennessean Online
Fort Campbell soldier with ties to local schoolchildren confirmed dead
A Fort Campbell soldier "adopted" by students at Franklin Elementary School has been killed after a recent mission in Iraq.
Pfc. Joseph Duenas visited the school with a group from Fort Campbell at the beginning of the school year. He was adopted by Lisa Kozlik’s first grade class, which spent a day getting to know the 23-year-old soldier.
Duenas died when he fell out of a helicopter in Kirkuk after a mission, Fort Campbell officials confirmed Monday.
Administrators planned to tell students of the news just before the end of the school day.
"We want to give them a little time to absorb it,” said Assistant Principal Marcella Crenshaw. “It’s a lot to absorb for 5- and 6-year old children. Children are very resilient, but it depends on their personal lives and what they’ve dealt with like this before.”
posted by Daniel at 3:22 PM
5 Comments:
This has got to be one of the most tragic stories I've heard in a long time. My heart goes out to the kids and to Pfc Duenas' family.
I remember the late 90's, when we thought we had it so bad because we had to think about how to explain 'oral sex' to our kids....
I'm tired of losing 23-year olds. When it comes time to "debate" Iran I hope the GOP machine is really as 'pro-life' as they love to claim....
4/05/2006 3:30 PM
The hard part of arguing with the conservative's war logic is, how do you prove a negative? How do you prove Iran WON'T do something? How do you prove Iraq DOESN'T have WMDs? Unless Democrats are willing to say "We have to take that chance", I think they are just going to buckle like in 2002.
4/05/2006 3:51 PM
Sean, I fear you are right about that.
I was confused for a while about this, given taht the conservative brinksmanship over communism didn't lead them to wantt o invade all the time - instead we had speheres of influence and testing ground wars (Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc). So what gives?
But I think it's that the old fogies have just inserted Fundamentalist Islam for Soviet Union in the old models. Iran is a satellite war, a sphere of influence, in that model.
In my opinion, the Dems have to tell a different normative story, one in which a nuclear Iran is a secular problem, like North Korea. We have to convince America that this is not a front in the administration's War on Terror, it is a separate issue altogether.
4/06/2006 8:14 AM
I am actually pfc duenas's cousin. He was so proud to be over there. He died doing what he belived was right. He was great person and anyone who would like to learn more about him can go to www.joeyduenas.com
5/08/2006 12:48 PM
I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!
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10/05/2006 4:35 AM
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