On This 'Memorial Day'

Garett Reppenhagen | One Soldier's Story on Memorial Day
Garett Reppenhagen: "Memorial Day is a painful reminder of our failed mission in Iraq. My experiences there changed my view of this war. Before I was deployed, I - like many other Americans - thought that military intervention was the only way to protect America's security. But after I spent some time in Iraq, I came to question our reason for being there. I came to realize that this war is not making America a safer place."


Bloody Scenes Haunt a Marine
Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones says he is tormented by two memories of November 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq. The first is of the body of his best friend and fellow Marine blown apart just after dawn by a roadside bomb. The second is of the lifeless form of a small Iraqi girl, one of two dozen unarmed civilians allegedly killed by members of his Camp Pendleton unit - Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.


For Soldier, Pacifist, a Marriage of War and Peace
For the warrior, the badge is an insignia that he saw action and risked his life for his country. The anti-warrior feels just as proud - and patriotic - when she borrows his cap and wears his badge on her long march for peace.


Iraq War Widows Seek Strength Amid Loss
Those who lost husbands early have been living their grief, raising children without fathers and building futures with memories of hard men who turned soft with children. For those recently widowed, grief chokes out the hope.


On the Homefront: War Takes Its Toll on Overburdened Military Families
Two new books about the Iraq War have given a 21st-century recasting to the war wife. Stacy Bannerman's "When the War Came Home" and Kristin Henderson's "While They're at War" provide vivid descriptions and heart-wrenching details of the way war reaches into every aspect of the lives of soldiers' spouses.


Last Week's Military Deaths
The Defense Department last week identified American military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq or who died at a US hospital of their injuries.