On June 27, 90 soldiers left Edward Little High School in Auburn for one year’s tour of duty in Iraq. All there was in the Sun Journal was one picture with an incorrect caption. Those soldiers are with the Army Reserves 619th Engineering Division, based on Minot Avenue in Auburn, not the National Guard. Those are two completely separate divisions of the Army.
Those 90 soldiers live and work in the Lewiston-Auburn area. People see them at the grocery store, the gas station, at local restaurants. They help support the community.
Before they left, there was an official going away ceremony in Fairfield that was attended by veterans and state officials. It received coverage on the local television stations, and the Maine Sunday Telegram had a half-page writeup covering the ceremony. The Sun Journal gave them one paragraph.
Those men and women are headed off to fight for something that most take for granted: freedom. They deserved more, and I would have hoped for more than the lack of coverage and the incorrect information that was stated on the front page of the June 28 Sun Journal.
Those men and women are fathers and mothers, and husbands and wives, and sons and daughters and loved ones. They make all of us proud.
As the nation is getting ready to celebrate Independence Day, the Sun Journal had an opportunity to honor those men and women. It failed miserably.
Giselle Bagushinski, Auburn

Editor’s note: The Sun Journal published a correction for this caption on June 30. We regret the error.