Grieving a loss, celebrating a birth and returning to duty

Grieving a loss, celebrating a birth and returning to duty
By Helen Anne Travis, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, September 21, 2008


When she saw the police at her door she knew he was gone. As the Chesapeake, Va., police ticked off the details of the motorcycle wreck that took her fiance's life, Rachael Leite wept and clutched her swollen belly.

Jessica was due in exactly a month.

The baby is now a warm, sleepy 9-pound bundle trying to learn to use her neck.

Leite is a 21-year-old insomniac who spends her nights crying and worrying.

How will she raise this baby by herself? she wonders.

And how will she avoid deployment?


The Naval Reserve enticed her two years ago with promises of a $40,000 sign-on bonus, free school and travel.
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