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Rialto, California
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Date Posted: 05:00:30 03/26/03 Wed
The mother of a Marine killed in Iraq said she learned of his death only when she saw his face as an Iraqi soldier showed off bodies of American casualties on TV.
"I said poor, poor boys. They fell there. But when I saw the face, it was that of my son," Rosa Gonzalez told Los Angeles television station KMEX on Tuesday.
Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, 20, was among several Marines killed over the weekend near the town of An Nasiriyah. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, in Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Military officials went to the family's home 60 miles east of Los Angeles on Monday to inform them of Gonzalez's death.
"I know, you don't have to tell me," Rosa Gonzalez said she told the officials.
"I want the news media to understand that any time they air images of wounded or dead soldiers in Iraq, they should think before they air those images since it greatly affects their families here," she said in Spanish.
She told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles that she initially told herself that the body was not her son's.
"But I see my son picked up from the floor and put in front of television," she said in English.
"It's terrible, I don't have words to express my hurt," she said.
Rosa Gonzalez said she received a letter Tuesday from her son in which he wrote of his new son, born March 4, whom he had not yet met. Jorge Gonzalez's younger brother read from the letter: "And if you can wait just a little longer, I'll be there as soon as the war ends."
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Slain Marine's Mother Saw Body on TV