Families of slain NCOs struggle at hearing

Such a sad story and so many lives changed because of this. The death, as bad as it would be to come from an enemy, was made all the more worse because the accused is one of their own. Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin, Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, are gone and their families left behind. Sgt. Jesse Everson will have to live with the memory of that day the rest of his life. Sgt. Joseph C. Bozicevich, the accused, has seen his life changed and so has his own family. He said "Just kill me" after this. By the reports it sounds as if he was already suffering long before this day. We won't know what happened until this is all over but what we do know is there are a lot of grieving people needing all the support they can get to get thru all of this.

Families of slain NCOs struggle at hearing

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Apr 15, 2009 17:28:06 EDT

FORT STEWART, Ga. — By the time Sgt. Jesse Everson reached the Joint Security Station at Patrol Base Jurf as Sahkr, Iraq, there wasn’t much he could do to save Sgt. Wesley R. Durbin.

So he prayed with the dying soldier.

“I knelt down, put my right hand on Durbin’s forehead, it was cold, it was blue,” Everson said.

Durbin, 26, of Dallas, and Staff Sgt. Darris J. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., died Sept. 14, 2008. A fellow soldier, Sgt. Joseph C. Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis, is accused of killing them after they counseled him for what leaders have said was Bozicevich’s poor performance.

Everson’s testimony Tuesday, the second day of Bozicevich’s Article 32 here, gave comfort to Durbin’s wife and parents, who were in the courtroom.

“It was a relief to know he didn’t suffer,” Durbin’s mother, Carole, said.

Learning that Everson prayed for her son was very comforting, Carole Durbin said, because her son was a Christian.

“We know and have faith that he is in heaven with God,” she said. “It’s just us who are in hell right now.”
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Families of slain NCOs struggle at hearing