mtshow
Goalie
Posts: 390
(3/7/02 9:25 pm)
Reply
|
R.I.P.
I mentioned this on the Smackdown fourmn, but this fourm seemed more appropriate:
Gallup family grieves for its fallen son
By Frank Zoretich
Tribune Reporter
The war in Afghanistan has shattered a family in Gallup.
Larry "Red" Cunningham and his wife, Jackie, were told by the Air Force at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning that their 26-year-old son, Jason Dean Cunningham, was killed early Monday Afghan time on a rescue mission in eastern Afghanistan.
Jason Cunningham, a senior airman and pararescueman with the 38th Rescue Squadron from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, was killed by small arms fire while aboard a Chinook helicopter, the Air Force said in a press release later in the day.
At the Cunningham residence, a modest gray ranch-style house on a quiet street at the eastern end of Gallup, an American flag hung outside a window.
A couple of Gallup Police Department officers were out on the street to keep news crews from disturbing the family.
The Cunninghams grieved in private throughout the day, as friends and neighbors arrived with condolences.
Shortly after dark, however, Red and Jackie Cunningham - along with Jason Cunningham's younger sister Lori, of Farmington, and his older brother, Chris, of Washington State - came outside in a group, clutching at each other for support and with tear stains on their cheeks.
They stood in the front yard - river-stone gravel contained by a knee-high white picket fence - in the glare of TV-camera lights.
As his wife sobbed quietly, Red Cunningham read a brief statement and answered several questions from reporters.
"Jason is a hero," his father said. "People need to realize that. He gave his life to save others. His ambition in life was to save lives."
Of the war in Afghanistan, triggered by the attacks of Sept. 11, Cunningham said: "I do not want to see President Bush back off on this conflict, but to fight to the bitter end in this war against terrorism."
"We're very proud of our baby," said Jackie Cunningham, who was almost too overcome to speak.
When her husband said they'd last heard from Jason via e-mail on Saturday, a reporter asked what Jason had said in it, and if he'd ever spoken about what he was doing in Afghanistan and how he felt about the war.
"No," Jackie Cunningham said, tugging at her husband's arm as if to pull him back into the house. "That's too personal."
The family's prepared statement, read by Jason's father, said he had been born and raised in Carlsbad and moved with the family to Farmington before he entered high school.
After graduating from high school in Farmington, Jason joined the Navy. After four years, he left the Navy, joined the Air Force and attended pararescue school.
"After 2 years of hard work and several injuries, Jason graduated in June 2001," the statement said. "He was sent to Afghanistan on February 1, 2002."
Jason Cunningham's wife, Theresa, and their two children, Kyla, 4, and Hannah, 2, reside in Camarillo, Calif., although the family lived in Valdosta, Ga., while Cunningham was stationed at Moody Air Force Base.
Theresa Cunningham said that before her husband was deployed, the couple saw a screening of the movie "We Were Soldiers" together. In the trailer for the movie, a dying soldier's last words are, "Tell my wife I love her."
After viewing the movie, Cunningham told his wife, "Even if I don't say that, that's what I'll be thinking," she recalled.
"He was a hero," she told The New York Times. "He cared about people and he saved people."
"He's a hero," Jason's father repeated. "Just like every other serviceman who's died for our country,"
After braving news-media attention for about five minutes, the Cunninghams retreated into the house.
In Carlsbad, Jason Cunningham's grandparents, Jack and Lorena Pope and Wilburn and Billie Cunningham, remembered him as an outgoing boy and young man.
"He was always a good kid," Lorena Pope told the Carlsbad Current-Argus. "He had good grades in school, and he had set goals for himself. He worked hard to achieve his goals.
"This has hit our family very hard," she said.
The family said memorial services will be held in Georgia and in Carlsbad this week. A funeral and burial are planned for next week in Camarillo.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
Rest in Peace
Matt T.
|
Email This To a Friend
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies