Slain soldier's family is bitter

[Amerpie]

Fayetteville, NC Observer

DUNN, NC - The family of an Army sergeant who died in Iraq this week was mourning over Easter weekend at the house of the grandparents who raised him.

Sgt. 1st Class Marvin L. Miller, 38, of Dunn died Wednesday in Balad when he was shot while on traffic control duty. The Pentagon said the shooting is still being investigated.

Some members of Miller's Harnett County family were struggling to justify to themselves his deployment to Iraq.

"Is it a good cause?" asked his sister, Miriam Smith. "No, not really. They're over there trying to help the people, and they're steady killing them."

Miller's cousin Felicia Smith of Raleigh and aunt Annie Miller concurred.

"It stinks," Annie Miller said. "The president got us into something he doesn't know how to get out of. It seems like the more killing that goes on over there, the more troops he's sending."

The family remembered an outgoing, friendly man devoted to the Army and to his family.

"He loved to party, and he loved his girls," Smith said.

Miller had two daughters and two sons with Linnett Miller, his wife of 12 years.

The 18-year military veteran was assigned to the Army's 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany.

The family had been living in Germany for about two years.

Miller's eldest child, Marvin Lee Miller Jr., said he no longer wants to follow his father's footsteps and go into the Army after high school.

"I was going into the military, but not no more," he said on the porch of his father's childhood home. "Not after this."

Funeral arrangements were not available Saturday.

[leftchick]

1. poor Marvin Jr....

he may not have a choice.

[Amerpie]

2. Yes he will

We have quite a history in this area of helping draft evaders.

Quaker House 35 years of fighting the war machine from inside the belly of the beast. (and other mixed metaphors)

[DAGDA56]

3. Sad as this is, my first thought was...

...why aren't there more stories like this?...why aren't we hearing about the 600 other "bitter families"? Why does it take the Fayetteville Observer to do the story, instead of the New York Times?

[Amerpie]

6. Counter-balanced

On the same day the Fayetteville Observer ran this story, they also ran a story on the 82nd Airborne from nearby Ft. Bragg is supposedly exceeding it's retention goals.

I'll post a that story in breaking news as well.

[lebkuchen]

7. Not what I hear.

What I hear from a recruitment officer is that of the latest 280 batch of recruits that went through training, only half qualified.

The quality isn't there anymore. The army is going to have to take what it can get.

[ramapo]

4. Unimaginable

I'm bitter and I don't have a relative, friend, or associate who has been directly affected by this travesty.

My son will soon be 18. If the draft comes back, we'll have some tough decisions.

[lebkuchen]

5. The 1SGT also enjoyed singing karaoke.

eom

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. "shot while on traffic duty"

Yeah, I'd say they're bitter. What a pathetic and surreal mess. It's akin to Apocolypse Now: "...a spear?"

[ultramega]

9. God bless them for telling the truth about their feelings.

NC is so conservative in spots

I was thinking about these oil pipelines...it seems like everytime the republicans get a chance they are going to try to use the military after they depose whoever stands in their way

[JoFerret]

10. Shot on traffic control duty

Geez. I sense a growing unease with the military families based on news reports.
Can it turn to a groundswell of disaffection with BushCo?

[daleo]

11. Rummy will call it road rage

Golly gee, these kinds of things happen in free societies all the time. Are we happy about it? No. Do we care if it happens another ten thousand times? Not really.

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. They're over there trying to help the people

The people in the bush campaign
Exxon
Halliburton

The poor little folks have been duped into believing that "our troops" are over there fighting for some noble cause, It's noble alright if your own stock in those companies.