January 11, 2010 Jamie Lowe was killed in
Afghanistan.
January 16, 2011 Michael Bartley was killed
in Iraq.
Michael’s
funeral will be held next week in the same church where Jamie’s funeral was
held exactly a year ago. The location of
that church is indicated by the red circle on the map that follows:
The
two blue circles in the middle are the home and high school of Jamie.
The
two green circles farther south are the home and high school of Mike.
They
both graduated from their respective high schools in 2007 which are both near
US 45, 13 miles apart. They probably met
as opponents on the playing fields of their schools.
A
year ago, Wayne County had its first military funeral since the Persian Gulf
War when we evicted Iraq from Kuwait.
These wonderful photos were taken by Denny
Simmons of the Evansville Courier & Press on January 20th of
last year. These images were captured at
Jamie’s funeral. They will soon be
repeated for Mike.
Jamie
died in Afghanistan which continues as our primary effort. Mike died in Iraq where American KIAs have
become less common, as we help them help themselves. Iraq has been invaded, pacified and
reborn. Most of the remaining violence
there is inter-religious, mostly Muslim against Muslim but also anti-Christian.
Mosul
is Iraq’s second-largest city. 18 days
before Mike was killed there by an insurgent posing as a member of the Iraqi
security force, the Mosul Chief-of-Police
was assassinated. He had been on the
front line battling the insurgent terrorists, primarily al-Qaeda in Iraq. Mosul had suffered 50 bombings and gun
assaults in the 10 days before the chief’s death. Pre-dawn on December 29th,
multiple gunmen and three suicide-bombers attacked a police compound. Two of the bombers detonated themselves
inside the police station, bringing down the building.
Mike
was killed in a similarly suicidal attack.
He was training Iraqis so they can maintain order without our help and
we can begin our pull-out this summer.
One of them turned on him. At
noon on Saturday, January 15th the original story of the treachery was
published and that
evening Mike’s mother was informed.
There were no names in that story.
Two days later on Monday, his hometown
newspaper introduced the world to Michael Bartley. From his rank, this photo must have been
taken during the first of his two Iraq tours.
Also
on Monday, Mike arrived at Dover
Air Force Base in Delaware where he was met by his mother, Rebecca Isles. She had authorized this photo of the transfer
when her son first arrived on U.S. soil.
And
also on Monday, a suicide bomber driving a car killed one person in an attack
on the convoy of the governor of the western Iraq province of Anbar.
The
next day, Tuesday, a suicide attacker killed 60 (Sixty!) people as they lined
up to join the police force in Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit. My neighbor Bob Morrissette
was shaken by that blast. I had just
exchanged email with him.
On
Wednesday a suicide bomber drove an ambulance packed with explosives into a
police training center in the provincial capital of Baqubah,
about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. At least 13 people were killed and 70
injured in that attack.
Also
on Wednesday, a man wearing an explosive vest detonated himself near the convoy
of a top provincial official during a gathering of Shiite pilgrims in the
district of Khalis, north of Baqubah.
The blast killed 2 and injured 15.
The
terrorists of the al-Qaeda
in Iraq organization are Sunni and virulently anti-Shiite. They are targeting the police and the people
who train the police, like Mike.
From
the story related to the Fox7 TV interview
of his parents broadcast recorded Wednesday:
His mom…says he was an over
achiever, "I am very honored to be able to show people what my son
accomplished in his short time as a United States Calvary Scout. He would always say ‘‘scouts out’ mom’."
Bartley's funeral will be at Orchardville Church.
He will be buried next to his grandpa at Maple Hill Cemetery. His tombstone will have a picture of his
beagle, Baby Girl, engraved on it. The
family is accepting donations at Fairfield National Bank.
At
the end of the video she reads a letter from her son’s commander: “Sergeant Bartley displayed the abilities of
a rare leader who possesses maturity, intelligence and tactical knowledge. As a squad leader, Sergeant Bartley had the
excellent ability to perform under pressure while completing missions with
quality results.”
Then
she sets down the letter, looks up at the camera: “And that’s what makes me proud.”
Thursday
afternoon: Mission
confirmed. PGRiders
will have a chance to honor this warrior.
(Highs expected then to be in the mid-30s with a 20 percent chance of
snow.) Mike will come home to southern
Illinois next week and his funeral service will then be held in the same church that served Jamie’s funeral a year
ago, in Illinois PGR region 9.
Plans
announced
Sunday evening.
Friday
evening: I just returned with many good
photos and a few thoughts. Six photos
for now.
(more to follow)
back to ALL
MISSIONS