| Subject: Families, communities mourn deaths of 9 soldiers |
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Kathy
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Date Posted: 16:58:39 04/05/03 Sat
News of the death of the first American woman soldier killed in the Iraq war hit hard in Tuba City, a community on the Navajo Reservation that is also close to Hopi land.
The Pentagon identified Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, one of the few American Indian women in the military, as one of the soldiers found dead during the rescue of an American POW in Iraq this week.
 ... Ft. Hood in February
Piestewa, 23, was the mother of a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl and a source of pride in her Hopi community.
"The tragedy has rocked the very foundation of the Hopi reservation since many of us have been continually praying with the Piestewa family for Lori's safe return," Hopi Tribal Chairman Wayne Taylor said early Saturday, after the Pentagon identified Piestewa and seven other soldiers found when Pfc. Jessica Lynch was rescued.
Since receiving news of Piestewa's disappearance weeks ago, officials from the Navajo and Hopi tribes have attended prayer services in honor of her and other military personnel. Hopi officials said that 56 Hopis are currently serving in the U.S. military, 48 of them in Iraq.
Many of Tuba City's 8,200 residents had been rallying around Piestewa's family, hanging yellow balloons and signs with uplifting messages outside the home of her parents' trailer.
Calls from The Associated Press to Piestewa's relatives in Tuba City were not immediately returned early Saturday.
"I am saddened to hear the news," said state Rep. Jack Jackson, a Democrat from Fort Defiance, which is on the Navajo Reservation. "I know the family had been asking for prayers and had been conducting daily prayers."
Wayland Piestewa had described his sister as a tough kid who "keeps her head about her and her wits about her." He had said that his sister joined the military about two years ago and was deployed about four weeks ago.
Also identified as dead by the Pentagon Saturday were Sgt. George E. Buggs, 31, of Barnwell, South Carolina; Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland, Ohio; Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, of El Paso, Texas; Spc. James M. Kiehl, 22, of Comfort, Texas; Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, of Amarillo, Texas; Pvt. Brandon U. Sloan, 19, of Cleveland, and Sgt. Donald R. Walters, 33, of Kansas City, Missouri.
Military sources said Saturday that another soldier's body had been identified, but that individual's name was not yet being released.
A chaplain informed Kiehl's parents of their son's death Friday evening.
"We just want everyone to know we support the president and the troops, and we believe in what James went over there for," his mother, Janie Kiehl, told the AP in a telephone interview Friday night.
Kiehl's pregnant wife, Jill, is in Des Moines, Iowa. She has declined to talk to the media.
"We were notified today that he was one of the bodies found at the hospital with Jessica," Walters' younger sister, Kimberly Cieslak, said Friday after receiving the news from the Oregon National Guard. "We want to thank the entire community for their thoughts and prayers and everything they've done for us."
The son of an Air Force veteran, Donald Walters was surrounded by the military while growing up in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
"I guess he was following in my footsteps. He was a patriotic guy. He felt it was his duty to serve his country," said his father, Norman Walters.
The Pentagon announcement came a few hours after about 200 worshippers gathered in Ohio to light candles and pray for Sloan and Dowdy.
Sloan's father, the Rev. Tandy Sloan, is an associate minister at Historic Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, where the vigil was held Friday night. Reached at home early Saturday morning, he declined to comment.
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