Soldier son's death prompts minister to examine his faith in 'Rest in Peace'

Goldberg's suspicions that his son was murdered center on a cryptic call from a fellow soldier, the fact that his son kept a journal of "bad things" that had happened to him in the Army - which the Army apparently destroyed - and an incomplete and contradictory medical report. Yet he knows his son was impulsive.

"If he did [kill himself], I'm willing to accept he did. But I'm not 100 percent sure that's the case."

Soldier son's death prompts minister to examine his faith in 'Rest in Peace'
By Kristen Moulton
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 11/23/2007 03:55:03 PM MST
When the news of his soldier son's death in Iraq was raw, Chuck Goldberg marveled at his own composure, at the soft cushion that seemed to hold his heart.

He knew then the source of his "undergirding," as he calls it, was his relationship with Jesus Christ.

But in the four years since two Army officers knocked on the Goldberg family door, Goldberg has learned something more about the demands of that relationship. He must forgive.

Whom Goldberg forgives is not entirely clear.

It may be his eldest son, David Goldberg, who the Army insists took his own life in his barracks. It may be the real shooter, if the Army is wrong. It may be the Army, which destroyed the son's journal and stopped answering the father's questions.

"It's one of these stories with alternate endings. It doesn't add up and I'm not getting anywhere," Goldberg says. "I reached a point where I had to forgive . . . and just move on because God ties my ability to forgive to his ability to forgive me."

Goldberg, a former journalist and minister ordained by the Assemblies of God, turned from pursuing the truth of his son's death to documenting his own truth.

The result is the book "Rest in Peace," a self-published testimony Goldberg hopes will encourage others to turn to Christ.
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Spc. David J. Goldberg 20 52nd Engineer Combat Battalion (Heavy), 43rd Area Support Group, U.S. Army Reserve Layton, Utah Died of a non-combat injury in Qayyarah, Iraq, on November 26, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/page3.html

It's a heart breaking story. A father left to cope with the unanswered loss of a son in the military. So heart broken, his faith as minister was rocked. Yet there are countless other families left behind and still not knowing how their son, daughter, husband, or wife died. In huge cities and tiny towns all across this country, there are notices of "under investigation" given to the families and media releases. Is anyone really investigating or are they hoping it just goes away, chocked off as yet just part of the price of being in the military? If you go into military web sites and do a search for "non-combat" or "under investigation" there are links to many of these deaths.

Earlier in the year when I was searching for suicide stories for the video Death Because They Served, I came across too many I could not use simply because the final answer I found was still listed as "under investigation" and many of these deaths were not recorded on sites attempting to list the deaths of the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. How is it that the investigators can show so little compassion for the families left behind that they are left wondering for years what happened to take their family member from this earth when it was not the enemy?

Seems to be that other than having a body to bury it is as if the soldier was MIA because there is no closure, just a closed casket and a tomb stone to visit. Knowing what happened with a convincing investigation brings the families peace enough that they find that closure enough to say goodbye.