AJC.com > Iraq coverage > Blog > Archives > 2005 > July > 26
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Comrades in 48th, families mourn 4
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At midnight Monday, 200 soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team gathered at Camp Stryker in Iraq to salute the caskets of their fallen comrades.
Back home in Georgia, the families of four citizen soldiers killed over the weekend in the deadliest attack on the unit since it arrived in Iraq absorbed the heartbreaking news and began planning funerals.
Spc. James Kinlow (left) and Spc. Jacques “Gus” Brunson.
Family members released the names of two of the dead Tuesday: Spc. James Kinlow of Thomson and Spc. Jacques “Gus” Brunson of Worth County.
On Wednesday, the Guard identified the other two as 44-year-old Staff Sergeant Carl Ray Fuller of Covington and 33-year-old Sergeant John Frank Thomas of Valdosta.
The four were members of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment. They were on patrol Sunday night when their Humvee hit a roadside bomb.
Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver, commander of the 48th, called the deaths the “worst mass casualties” for the brigade since it deployed to the Middle East in mid-May for a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq.
They are also the first combat casualties for the Georgia Army National Guard since World War II, said Jim Driscoll, a Guard spokesman in Atlanta.
“These are tragic losses, and we will do everything we can to take care of [the soldiers] and their families,” Rodeheaver said.
A memorial service for the four soldiers is planned for Thursday evening at Camp Stryker, he said.
Kinlow, 35, a truck driver from Thomson, near Augusta, leaves a wife, Daphanie, a son, Chauncey, 15, and a daughter, Chelsea, 10.
‘The good of the country’
Kinlow grew up in nearby Lincolnton and joined the Guard almost 16 years ago after finishing high school. He was an ammunition specialist and had recently been transferred to the 121st Infantry’s Alpha Company in Valdosta, said Daphanie Kinlow, his wife of 12 years.
At first he wasn’t happy about being sent to Iraq, she said, but his attitude changed after he was mobilized. She remembered a spirited discussion he had with his mother during his last days at home, in May.
“She was dead set against his going,” Kinlow recalled. “He made this speech: ‘Mama, it’s for the good of the country.’ I still don’t think she bought it. But I did — or at least I acted like I did.”
‘Going to be on front lines’
Brunson, 30, joined the Guard two years ago, said his mother, Cathy Brunson of Sylvester. She said her son felt that by signing up he could make the world safer for his children, 9-year-old Kayla and 8-year-old Jake. He had worked for several years as a guard at the Sumter County Correctional Institute but was unemployed when the 48th was activated.
Cathy Brunson, the deputy tax commissioner in Worth County, said she opposed her son’s decision to join the National Guard because she knew he might get sent to Iraq. “I understood his call to duty, but I also understood that he had children.
“I am personally opposed to the war. I feel our troops should be brought home and let the Iraqis fight among themselves,” she said.
Another of Cathy Brunson’s sons, 28-year-old Chris, was an Army helicopter mechanic in Iraq and returned safely. But Jacques warned her that his role as an infantryman would put him in greater danger. “He said, ‘Mama, I’m going to be on the front lines,’ ” she said.
The 48th is responsible for security in sections of southwest Baghdad, and most of the dangerous patrolling of streets falls to the infantry units.
The four soldiers were killed about 7:30 Sunday evening after their Humvee hit a roadside bomb — also known as an improvised explosive device, or IED — on Route Aeros, Rode-heaver said. The vehicle was part of a convoy patrolling the east-west artery just south of Camp Stryker.
Humvees not invincible
Gov. Sonny Perdue, who is on a trade mission in Canada, issued a public statement offering his and his wife’s condolences to the families of the dead soldiers.
“As members of our Georgia family, we will mourn their passing and pray for the speedy recovery of the injured,” the statement said. “We will honor their service to our nation and their defense of freedom in the heart of the Middle East.”
Lt. Col. Tom Carden of the 48th said Sunday’s attacks were being investigated and that he had sought the help of a local leader to search for the insurgents who might have planted the bomb, which was estimated to contain 500 to 600 pounds of explosives.
Carden said Guard soldiers travel outside Camp Stryker in the Army’s factory-produced, armored Humvees. But even they are not invincible, he said.
“They are the best equipment money can buy, but if it is a big enough bomb, there is no such thing as 100 percent protection,” Carden said. “This was definitely the biggest bomb we’ve been hit with.”
Sgt. Maj. Calvin Wilcox, who has served in the 2nd Battalion of the 121st for 18 years, said the entire brigade was reeling from the tragedy. It is especially hard for the infantry unit, which also lost Sgt. Chad Mercer of Waycross in a noncombat accident in Iraq last month.
“You can look into their eyes and tell they hurt,” Wilcox said.
Staff writers Jim Auchmutey and Kay Powell in Atlanta and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Anna Varela can be reached at avarela@ajc.com, Moni Basu at mbasu@ajc.com.
