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6 soldiers, one from Maine, killed in Afghanistan return to US

Published on Tuesday, Oct 6, 2009 at 12:12 am | Last updated on Tuesday, Oct 6, 2009 at 4:04 pm 1 Comment
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) - The remains of six soldiers killed in Afghanistan were returned to U.S. soil Tuesday as about 50 family members watched the flag-draped transfer cases be removed from a military cargo plane at Dover Air Force Base.

The quiet ceremony was punctuated only by a crying child.

The soldiers were identified by the military as Sgt. Joshua J. Kirk of South Portland, Maine; Spec. Michael P. Scusa of Villas, N.J.; Spec. Christopher T. Griffin of Kincheloe, Mich.; Pfc. Kevin C. Thomson of Reno, Nev.; Sgt. Vernon W. Martin, of Savannah, Ga.; and Spec. Stephen L. Mace of Lovettsville, Va.

First Lt. Joe Winter, a mortuary affairs base spokesman, said the six were killed in Afghanistan, but could not provide further details.

The soldiers' arrival comes after hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed two U.S. outposts in the mountainous Nuristan province Saturday. It was the deadliest assault on U.S. forces in more than a year. Officials have not yet identified the U.S. soldiers killed in those attacks.

Scusa, 22, joined the Army shortly after graduating from Lower Cape May Regional High School, said David Shuhart of Villas, N.J., who said he lived with Scusa and his mother after they moved to New Jersey from Nebraska in 2000.

Shuhart said Scusa was married and had a young son.

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lactobacili's picture

I met Sgt Kirk last year

I met Sgt Kirk last year when he was part of 173rd Airborne's team tasked with showing us, 1st Infantry, around the combat area just before he went home. It was my first deployment and I was nervous, but he was confident and solid and said, "look just do this, this, and this, and you'll be ok." Of all of the 173rd guys I met he stood out as one of the few that I felt was truly interested in making sure we were ok before he left, despite the fact that his own deployment had been extended an extra 3 months. So, I was surprised and sorta happy (sorta because nobody wants a friend to be in a place like Keating) a year later to see him getting off the helicopter at Keating with his distinctive body armor. It's unusual to serve back to back tours in the Army's most dangerous fight, so I asked him if he was lucky or crazy and his response was something-like "if this is where the fighting is, then I'm in the right place." You can usually judge an NCO by the confidence his men have in him and from this I'd say that Sgt Kirk was a leader among leaders, and a man among men. I know, from just the short days that I spent with him, that when the fight came he was at the front taking care of his men and fighting the fight, and that sadly when the casualty details eventually came out that he would be among the fallen. When times go bad its men like Sgt Kirk that lead the way to fixing things, and sometimes we lose them as a result. But rest assured that when a man like him goes down it inspires a whole new generation of men just like him. My heartfelt condolences to Sgt Kirk's friends and family, and as we mourn him I hope you can find solace in the words of General George S Patton, a man who also served the US Cavalry as Sgt Kirk did, "It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived"... Sgt D. Plumley, Hartford, ME

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