Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize to soldier's grieving father

Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize to soldier's grieving father
By Erin Sullivan, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, July 10, 2010



DADE CITY — Four of the Army's top officers left the Pentagon on a jet Thursday morning and headed to Florida to tell a grieving man they were sorry.

The generals — Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff; Colleen L. McGuire, provost marshal general and the Army's highest ranking military police officer; John F. Mulholland Jr., commander of Special Forces; and Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army's surgeon general — arrived at Mike Murburg's rural, 5-acre ranch in the tiny community of Darby in full uniform. Murburg, drenched in sweat, worked outside on his tractor until they showed up. He showered quickly, but did not dress up.

Murburg, a lawyer, had been fighting for this — for a response, for answers — for two years. In June 2008, his 20-year-old son Norman "Ehren" Murburg III died during a Green Beret training exercise near Fort Bragg, N.C. At first, the Army said Ehren died from being bitten on his left hand by a 39-inch water moccasin, which was found near the site, its venom sacks empty. Murburg was shown photos of the snake. He didn't believe it. Ehren, who was an anthropology major at the University of Florida before joining the Army, grew up hunting and fishing. He knew about snakes. When Murburg visited Fort Bragg days after Ehren's death, he said many on site said they thought the death was related to the record-breaking heat wave.
read more here
Top Army generals fly to Pasco to apologize