Beverly soldier is killed, wanted to change world
By John R. Ellement
Globe Staff / October 17, 2008
BEVERLY - Among the flood of memories that rushed through Elizabeth "Betty" Crawford's mind yesterday was the time in July she stood at Logan Airport watching her son, Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, as he prepared to leave her and New England.
Suddenly, the supportive but anxious mom who had easily handled every other separation since her son enlisted in the Army in 2005 was replaced by the mother who wanted to reach out, grab hold of her son, and never let him go.
"I knew I was sending him back to a war zone, [and] I didn't want [the Army] to have my son," she recalled yesterday. "But the other part of me said this is what he wanted to do. He was a soldier. This was his job. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life."
Crawford recalled that Logan moment yesterday as she also recalled her son, who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown by up an improvised explosive device. At least two other soldiers were killed, Army officials told Fortunato's family.
"My son Stephen was very affectionate and a loving kid," Crawford said of her 25-year-old son. "He was the jokester, all the time. But he was also a dedicated soldier. He went into the Army like anyone else, a kid. He came home as a man."
According to his family, Fortunato's decision to enlist into a war-time Army was driven by a powerful feeling of patriotism; a desire to experience war personally, not only through a video game; and the opportunity to use the GI Bill to pay for college.
Since joining, he had served in Korea, but in July he was assigned to the First Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and was deployed to Afghanistan.
He returned to Beverly for a three-week break, which ended Sept. 26. He then spent about two weeks working his way back to Afghanistan and had been there only briefly when he was killed, his family said yesterday.
"He wanted to change the world," his father, Richard, said in a phone interview from his Florida home yesterday. "How he was going to do it single-handedly, I don't know. But he wanted to change the world."
The elder Fortunato also recalled a conversation with his son: "He told me in these words, 'Dad, I'm ready to die for my country.' I don't know where he got that, he just wanted to be out there, to do it."
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/17
/beverly_soldier_is_killed_wanted_to_change_world/
go here for video
VIDEO Beverly family talks about soldier's death
PHOTOS New England's war dead
By John R. Ellement
Globe Staff / October 17, 2008
BEVERLY - Among the flood of memories that rushed through Elizabeth "Betty" Crawford's mind yesterday was the time in July she stood at Logan Airport watching her son, Army Specialist Stephen Fortunato, as he prepared to leave her and New England.
Suddenly, the supportive but anxious mom who had easily handled every other separation since her son enlisted in the Army in 2005 was replaced by the mother who wanted to reach out, grab hold of her son, and never let him go.
"I knew I was sending him back to a war zone, [and] I didn't want [the Army] to have my son," she recalled yesterday. "But the other part of me said this is what he wanted to do. He was a soldier. This was his job. It was the hardest thing I ever did in my life."
Crawford recalled that Logan moment yesterday as she also recalled her son, who was killed Tuesday in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was blown by up an improvised explosive device. At least two other soldiers were killed, Army officials told Fortunato's family.
"My son Stephen was very affectionate and a loving kid," Crawford said of her 25-year-old son. "He was the jokester, all the time. But he was also a dedicated soldier. He went into the Army like anyone else, a kid. He came home as a man."
According to his family, Fortunato's decision to enlist into a war-time Army was driven by a powerful feeling of patriotism; a desire to experience war personally, not only through a video game; and the opportunity to use the GI Bill to pay for college.
Since joining, he had served in Korea, but in July he was assigned to the First Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and was deployed to Afghanistan.
He returned to Beverly for a three-week break, which ended Sept. 26. He then spent about two weeks working his way back to Afghanistan and had been there only briefly when he was killed, his family said yesterday.
"He wanted to change the world," his father, Richard, said in a phone interview from his Florida home yesterday. "How he was going to do it single-handedly, I don't know. But he wanted to change the world."
The elder Fortunato also recalled a conversation with his son: "He told me in these words, 'Dad, I'm ready to die for my country.' I don't know where he got that, he just wanted to be out there, to do it."
go here for more
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/10/17
/beverly_soldier_is_killed_wanted_to_change_world/
go here for video
VIDEO Beverly family talks about soldier's death
PHOTOS New England's war dead
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