(This News Item popped in on AOL one day months after I had written to the subject of "family" in my Forward. I can't tell you how I felt when I read it. Another war, another time. A war, in fact, long after the Greatest War Ever: World War II. Heartsick is a useless word. But I know of no other. It is said of the Lottery, that you "Gotta be in it, to Win it.." It's something like that with the 12-man* Infantry Squad... "Gotta be in it, to Know it". - BWP)

*12 men war; 8 men peace...

Last Marine in Squad Mourns 11 Friends Killed in Bombing

All But One in Close-Knit Unit Die in Roadside Attack in Iraq

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA, AP

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (Oct. 1) - Cpl. David Kreuter had a new baby boy he'd seen only in photos. Lance Cpl. Michael Cifuentes was counting the days to his wedding. Lance Cpl. Nicholas Bloem had just celebrated his 20th birthday. Travis Williams remembers them all - all 11 men in his Marine squad - all now dead. Two months ago they shared a cramped room stacked with bunk beds at this base in northwest Iraq, where the Euphrates River rushes by. Now the room has been stripped of several beds, brutal testament that Lance Cpl. Williams' closest friends are gone.

For the 12 young Marines who landed in Iraq early this year, the war was a series of hectic, constant raids into more than a dozen lawless towns in Iraq's most hostile province, Anbar. The pace and the danger bound them together into what they called a second family, even as some began to question whether their raids were making any progress. Now, all of the Marines assigned to the 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Regiment, based in Columbus, Ohio, are gone - except Williams. They died in a roadside-bomb set by insurgents on Aug. 3 that killed a total of 14 Marines. Most of the squad were in their early 20s; the youngest was 19.

"They were like a family. They were the tightest squad I've ever seen," said Capt. Christopher Toland of Austin, Texas, the squad's platoon commander. Even though many did not know each other before they got to Iraq, "They truly loved each other."

Etc.

MAGGIE'S DRAWERS

"They were tattered, they were torn,
'Round the asshole they were worn.
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she stooped to fix her shoe
You could see her ring-dang-doo
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she stooped to fix her lace
You could see the promised place
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.

When she threw them in the sea
They came floating back to me
Those old red flannel drawers that Maggie wore.
(On and On - Ad Nauseaum..)"

Truly Gone This Time - For Good!