Reply #11: Was this soldier also involved in the incident with the NYT OpEd authors?

[seafan]

Found this report of another fatality on the same day, last Monday, September 10, near Baghdad, in similar-sounding circumstances. It appears possible that this soldier could have been in the same incident that killed the soldiers who wrote in the NY Times, but don't know for certain.


According to the NYT, September 12:

Two of the soldiers who wrote of their pessimism about the war in an Op-Ed article that appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 19 were killed in Baghdad on Monday. They were not killed in combat, nor on a daring mission. They died when the five-ton cargo truck in which they were riding overturned.

Sgt. Michael C. Hardegree

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=103129">Villa Rica Soldier Killed in Iraq

Reported by: Catherine Kim
Last Modified: 9/14/2007 7:12:01 PM

.....


The 21-year-old paratrooper was always ready for a mission, always willing to serve. And that's exactly what he was doing on Monday. Hardegree and several of his Lieutenants were near Baghdad after a successful mission.

“And they were on their way back and there was some small arms fire and some dust. And in the confusion the driver couldn't see, hit a barrier, and the barrier deflected the vehicle. The vehicle was on the edge of a bridge and started to teeter,” said Shaw.

Hardegree and everyone in his truck fell over the bridge at least 50 feet below.

“Mike survived 12 hours to the hospital and got to the hospital and felt no pain,” said Shaw.

But for those he left behind, the pain is a very real reminder of how much they loved Mike, reminders of their last words with him.

.....

Mike Hardegree would have come home November 11th. He will be buried at Arlington Cemetery.

RIP, Sgt. Hardegree.


Just can't take this any more. God help us all.