Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Daily News
May 16, 2007
Army widow gets painful note
By Joe Mahoney and Rich Schapiro, Daily News Staff Writers
Two days after learning that her soldier husband had been killed in an ambush, the widow received a letter from him that reduced her to tears.
Pfc. Daniel Courneya, 19, who died in an attack outside Baghdad in which three other G.I.s were killed and three kidnapped, wrote to his wife, Jennifer, that meeting her sooner could have changed his life.
"He told me in a letter I just got yesterday if he had met me before he went in the service, he would have never gone," the sweet-faced 19-year-old told the Daily News yesterday. "He really didn't want to be there."
"He said he wanted to come home," she added. "He said he hated it there."
Jennifer Courneya spoke to The News outside of a military supply store near Fort Drum, where she went to perform the sad task of returning five combat uniforms her beloved husband had recently requested.
"My husband just died in Iraq," she told an employee of Bradley's military store before handing over the fatigues.
Escorted by her mother, Kim Kernehan, Courneya struggled to contain herself as she described how her husband of less than a year joined the military simply because other members of his family were in the service.
"He was so funny, very loving," she added. "He was talking about starting a family."
Daniel Courneya grew up in a small town in Michigan, where he excelled in soccer and track. He was most recently living with his new wife in upstate Plessis - a place he was expected to return to in November.
"He really loved my daughter," Jennifer's mother said, her eyes misting over.
Kernehan said it made her angry to think about her daughter's future without her husband, and it confirmed her opinion about the war.
"My opinion has been and is even more now that we don't need to be [in Iraq] anyway," she said.
May 16, 2007
Army widow gets painful note
By Joe Mahoney and Rich Schapiro, Daily News Staff Writers
Two days after learning that her soldier husband had been killed in an ambush, the widow received a letter from him that reduced her to tears.
Pfc. Daniel Courneya, 19, who died in an attack outside Baghdad in which three other G.I.s were killed and three kidnapped, wrote to his wife, Jennifer, that meeting her sooner could have changed his life.
"He told me in a letter I just got yesterday if he had met me before he went in the service, he would have never gone," the sweet-faced 19-year-old told the Daily News yesterday. "He really didn't want to be there."
"He said he wanted to come home," she added. "He said he hated it there."
Jennifer Courneya spoke to The News outside of a military supply store near Fort Drum, where she went to perform the sad task of returning five combat uniforms her beloved husband had recently requested.
"My husband just died in Iraq," she told an employee of Bradley's military store before handing over the fatigues.
Escorted by her mother, Kim Kernehan, Courneya struggled to contain herself as she described how her husband of less than a year joined the military simply because other members of his family were in the service.
"He was so funny, very loving," she added. "He was talking about starting a family."
Daniel Courneya grew up in a small town in Michigan, where he excelled in soccer and track. He was most recently living with his new wife in upstate Plessis - a place he was expected to return to in November.
"He really loved my daughter," Jennifer's mother said, her eyes misting over.
Kernehan said it made her angry to think about her daughter's future without her husband, and it confirmed her opinion about the war.
"My opinion has been and is even more now that we don't need to be [in Iraq] anyway," she said.