Bun pit linked to another soldier's death

Soldier from W. Babylon dies of rare cancer
Originally published: January 3, 2011 4:58 PM
Updated: January 3, 2011 9:28 PM
By SOPHIA CHANG AND VICTOR MANUEL RAMOS


After a long year of watching the slow death of her husband, Army Sgt. William McKenna, Dina McKenna decided the final goodbye should be dignified without painful lingering.

"Because of my children, I wanted to keep it brief. We've been suffering for a whole year with his cancer and how much he has deteriorated," she said Monday after her husband was buried at Calverton National Cemetery. He died in Florida on Tuesday at the age of 41 from a rare form of lymphoma.

There was no eulogy at his funeral at the Johnstons' Wellwood Funeral Home in Lindenhurst, just a few miles from the West Babylon neighborhood where McKenna grew up.
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Soldier from W. Babylon dies of rare cancer

Veteran on cross-country bike trek dies

Veteran on cross-country bike trek dies

The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Mar 16, 2009 11:15:08 EDT

NORMAN, Okla. — A disabled Gulf War veteran who left Norman earlier this month on a hand-propelled bicycle headed for Washington, D.C., to honor fallen soldiers has died.

Kevin Baker suffered a seizure Friday morning in his sleep at the home of some friends in Lake Charles, La., said Norman resident Diane Zellner. He died in an ambulance en route to a local hospital, Zellner said she was told.

Baker, a 39-year-old Navy veteran, had a history of seizures, stemming from a traumatic brain injury, she said. He also had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

Baker had planned to ride his bicycle from Norman to Washington, D.C., and Gettysburg, Pa., to Marseilles, Ill., to support a new flag designed to honor fallen members of the military, the Norman Transcript reported March 8.

He planned to fly the Honor and Remember Flag from his bike and encourage people along the way to sign a petition urging Congress to adopt the flag as a new national symbol by passing HR Bill 1034.

“He made a valiant effort to promote this new flag, the Honor and Remember flag for the Gulf War dead, and unfortunately it took his life, too,” said Jim Zellner, who also knew Baker.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/03/ap_vet_bike_031609/