Sgt. Lerando Brown another non-combat death in Iraq

US Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,992
By The Associated Press – 13 hours ago

As of Wednesday, March 19, 2008, at least 3,992 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,251 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.

The AP count is four more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.

The British military has reported 175 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.

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The latest deaths reported by the military:

_ A soldier was killed Wednesday in a vehicle rollover in Diyala province.

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The latest identifications reported by the military:

_ Army Spc. Lerando J. Brown, 27, Gulfport, Miss.; died Saturday in Balad of injuries from a non-combat incident; assigned to the 288th Sapper Company, 223rd Engineer Battalion, Mississippi Army National Guard, Houston, Miss.
_ Two Army soldiers died Monday in Baghdad when their vehicle struck an explosive. Both were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 68th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

Killed were Staff Sgt. Michael D. Elledge, 41, Brownsburg, Ind., and Spc. Christopher C. Simpson, 23, Hampton, Va.

Poplarville Family Mourns Death Of Soldier, Father, Husband
Posted: March 19, 2008 08:19 PM EDT


By Al Showers
POPLARVILLE (WLOX) -- A black ribbon posted on a mail box signifies the grief inside the Poplarville home of the Brown family.

"I done lost someone that I truly loved," said Sgt. Lerando Brown's wife, Candice.

The two married about a month before he was deployed to Iraq.

"There's a hole in my heart, cause I feel like I've lost my best friend," Candice said.

On Saturday, Candice, her mother and father were at the city park planning a July family reunion when they learned two men from the Army were at the house to see Candice.

The horrible news came with few details. Sergeant Brown was in Balad, north of Baghdad, and died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Candice had talked to her husband just hours before his death.

"We talked because he wanted to know how I was doing, how I was feeling, cause I had a doctor's appointment the day before and he wanted to know how everything went. And we talked about that and he told me, 'Alright, I'll talk to you later. Love you," and he hung up."

Brown was with the National Guard's 288th Sapper Company based in Houston, Mississippi.

"We watch the news and we always hear about the casualties and pray for the families, but when it's your own family, it really hits home," Brown's father-in-law Jimmy Richardson said.

Brown's family said he wanted to go to Iraq to serve the country he loved. But his death has left his wife questioning the sacrifice.

"I still don't understand what they're over there fighting for. He'd always say 'for our freedom,' so it just don't make no sense to me. It tears me up inside, cause I thought we were going to have a lifetime of memories," Candice said. "He still lives in my heart, always and forever."

Sergeant Lerando Brown is at least the 60th soldier with strong ties to Mississippi to die in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last five years. Sergeant Brown leaves behind two young sons.

Funeral services will be held next Wednesday at the Hart's Chapel Baptist Church on Dupont-Harts Chapel Road in Poplarville. Visitation is at 10am, with the funeral service at noon.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=8043097&nav=6DJI

While we see the numbers of troops killed in Iraq, we do not think of their families. We see a number approaching 4,000 but we do not allow the numbers of those who took their own life back here in the states. We never think of their families either. There is a lot we don't want to think about.

When they come home with devastating, disfiguring wounds, some say they should feel lucky to be alive and then leave it at that. We don't want to face the fact they will pay the price for their service for the rest of their lives. We don't want to think about the backlog of claims as they wait their turn to be able to receive compensation to be able to provide for their families and pay their bills. It's the same when they develop PTSD and TBI, unable to work and unable to pay their bills as they wait for what some consider a "government handout" instead of a debt owed.

For the families who believe in what Bush says about Iraq, they take the news of the loss as a worthy cause, yet for the families left behind when they see the occupation of Iraq as a senseless mission with no end in sight, they are left to feel the loss along with a lot of anger.

We fail to see that the soldiers serving are a mirror image of us back home. When I heard Vice President Cheney respond to the fact most of the country thinks the invasion of Iraq was not worth it and he responded with "so" then smiled, I thought about the soldiers and their families back home hearing that word coming out of one of the men responsible for waging this operation without concern for the men and women who would pay the price with their lives or for the rest of their lives.

Families like Sergeant Lerando Brown's, who loved him, worried about him, cared about him yet did not believe in a word President Bush has said about the reason he was there. We trap the word hero in our brain and then think we have to support the mission or we dishonor them. What we do not see is that these men and women were born heroes and died in service to this nation that was willing to forget all about them, refuse to seek accountability, refuse to demand they were all taken care of and paid more attention to Britney Spears actions than what was happening to them. We should be ashamed to hear Bush or Cheney making speeches that do not include truth, yet too many in this country will still cheer these men.

The fact is we are arming the Sunni and the Shia and both groups agree on one thing. They hate Al-Qaeda and will take care of the few in their country that are not connected to Osama's group. Osama's group is in Afghanistan. The military operation Bush and Cheney refuse to even speak of as they try to twist the two invasions together.

While they speak of the risk to American security if they leave Iraq because terrorism will spread, they did just that with Afghanistan. They abandoned the mission there as well as the forces trying to secure Afghanistan. We should be ashamed but we are not.

While we argue over keeping the troops in Iraq or bringing them home, we disregard the fact so many of the wounded in body or mind need to be taken care of today, are not being taken care of. We should be ashamed we do not use every spear moment of our day fighting to insure they are all cared for. When will we live up to the words we say with deeds? When will we live up to the words we use as we present a carefully folded flag to the families left behind "from a grateful nation" and actually have actions to back that up?

Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington