Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Denver Post
October 7, 2009
Pg. 1
By Tom McGhee, The Denver Post
Christopher Griffin had dreams that were bigger than the town where he grew up. So he joined the Army.
Vernon Martin was planning to work with kids when he got out of the service.
Their dreams, and the dreams of six other soldiers from a Fort Carson unit, ended when they were killed Saturday in a bloody all-day battle to defend a remote outpost in Afghanistan.
Family members of the soldiers looked on as the flag-draped transfer cases containing their bodies were removed from a military plane at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday.
The quiet ceremony was punctuated only by the sound of a crying child.
Six of the soldiers have been identified: Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk of South Portland, Maine; Spec. Michael P. Scusa of Villas, N.J.; Spec. Christopher T. Griffin of Kincheloe, Mich.; Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson of Reno, Nev.; Sgt. Vernon W. Martin of Savannah, Ga.; and Spec. Stephen L. Mace of Lovettsville, Va.
"I can't put it into words; he was the best thing that ever happened to me and my kids," Brittany Martin, 23, the wife of Vernon Martin, 25, told The Denver Post.
Martin loved to read science fiction, loved being with his three small children and hoped someday to work in a youth development program preparing kids for adulthood.
The couple's children are 2, 4 and 6.
Martin joined the Army about six years ago. "He was working job to job. I think he just wanted to do it for us, as a better way to provide for us," Brittany Martin said.
He had done a tour of duty in Iraq and wasn't happy when his unit was shipped to Afghanistan, she said. "He didn't really feel comfortable with it."
She talked with him by phone the night before he was killed, she said. "We just had a regular, old conversation."
Griffin, 24, grew up in Kincheloe, Mich., where correctional facilities dominate the landscape and jobs are few, said his aunt, Nikcole Johnson.
"Where he grew up, it was a small hometown. There were nothing there but prisons for working. College wasn't interesting to him; it wasn't what he really wanted for himself. I really do believe the Army was his calling in life. He was very proud of it," Johnson said.
Marcia Griffin, who is married to Griffin's grandfather, remembers that as a young boy Griffin dressed for the televised games of his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
"We would pop in to see him around game time, there he was with his cheese hat on. We always called him a cheese head."
After his mother moved away to take a job, Griffin, who was in his final year of high school and didn't want to leave, moved in with his grandmother, Marcia Griffin said. "He was friendly, and he was a hard worker. If any of the neighbors needed their lawns mowed or anything, he would do it."
He had done a tour of duty in Iraq, Johnson said.
Scusa, 22, joined the Army shortly after graduating from high school in New Jersey, according to The Associated Press. He was on his second tour in Afghanistan.
He was married and had a son.
Thomson, 22, was a spirited kid with a good sense of humor and a strong relationship with his mother, his former high school guidance counselor told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "One thing that really impressed me was about the family. It was just his mom and him. They really seemed to have a good relationship, and they seemed to work as a team pretty well," guidance counselor David Erickson said.
Thomson joined the Army in April 2008.
His picture is hanging at Scolari's grocery store where he worked in southeast Reno before joining the Army, according to the newspaper.
"It's very devastating to everybody here at the store," said Sherry Hernandez, who works there.
The Associated Press and Denver Post librarian Barry Osborne contributed to this report.
October 7, 2009
Pg. 1
By Tom McGhee, The Denver Post
Christopher Griffin had dreams that were bigger than the town where he grew up. So he joined the Army.
Vernon Martin was planning to work with kids when he got out of the service.
Their dreams, and the dreams of six other soldiers from a Fort Carson unit, ended when they were killed Saturday in a bloody all-day battle to defend a remote outpost in Afghanistan.
Family members of the soldiers looked on as the flag-draped transfer cases containing their bodies were removed from a military plane at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base on Tuesday.
The quiet ceremony was punctuated only by the sound of a crying child.
Six of the soldiers have been identified: Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk of South Portland, Maine; Spec. Michael P. Scusa of Villas, N.J.; Spec. Christopher T. Griffin of Kincheloe, Mich.; Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson of Reno, Nev.; Sgt. Vernon W. Martin of Savannah, Ga.; and Spec. Stephen L. Mace of Lovettsville, Va.
"I can't put it into words; he was the best thing that ever happened to me and my kids," Brittany Martin, 23, the wife of Vernon Martin, 25, told The Denver Post.
Martin loved to read science fiction, loved being with his three small children and hoped someday to work in a youth development program preparing kids for adulthood.
The couple's children are 2, 4 and 6.
Martin joined the Army about six years ago. "He was working job to job. I think he just wanted to do it for us, as a better way to provide for us," Brittany Martin said.
He had done a tour of duty in Iraq and wasn't happy when his unit was shipped to Afghanistan, she said. "He didn't really feel comfortable with it."
She talked with him by phone the night before he was killed, she said. "We just had a regular, old conversation."
Griffin, 24, grew up in Kincheloe, Mich., where correctional facilities dominate the landscape and jobs are few, said his aunt, Nikcole Johnson.
"Where he grew up, it was a small hometown. There were nothing there but prisons for working. College wasn't interesting to him; it wasn't what he really wanted for himself. I really do believe the Army was his calling in life. He was very proud of it," Johnson said.
Marcia Griffin, who is married to Griffin's grandfather, remembers that as a young boy Griffin dressed for the televised games of his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
"We would pop in to see him around game time, there he was with his cheese hat on. We always called him a cheese head."
After his mother moved away to take a job, Griffin, who was in his final year of high school and didn't want to leave, moved in with his grandmother, Marcia Griffin said. "He was friendly, and he was a hard worker. If any of the neighbors needed their lawns mowed or anything, he would do it."
He had done a tour of duty in Iraq, Johnson said.
Scusa, 22, joined the Army shortly after graduating from high school in New Jersey, according to The Associated Press. He was on his second tour in Afghanistan.
He was married and had a son.
Thomson, 22, was a spirited kid with a good sense of humor and a strong relationship with his mother, his former high school guidance counselor told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "One thing that really impressed me was about the family. It was just his mom and him. They really seemed to have a good relationship, and they seemed to work as a team pretty well," guidance counselor David Erickson said.
Thomson joined the Army in April 2008.
His picture is hanging at Scolari's grocery store where he worked in southeast Reno before joining the Army, according to the newspaper.
"It's very devastating to everybody here at the store," said Sherry Hernandez, who works there.
The Associated Press and Denver Post librarian Barry Osborne contributed to this report.