Target Centermass

Day: June 20, 2005

  • Judge to Pick Parent to Bury Marine

    Want to add courtroom drama to wartime family tragedy? Enter the perfect storm of a fallen soldier, cemetery delays and well-intentioned but divorced parents.

    The divorced parents of a Marine killed in the U.S. military’s deadliest air crash of the Iraq war are fighting in court over where to bury their son.

    The Detroit-area judge who will decide the case scheduled a July 15 hearing on Monday and said she does not want it to turn into a “three-ring circus.”

    The parents are arguing over the choice of cemeteries – a new national cemetery that has yet to open or a paternal family plot.

    Lance Cpl. Allan Klein, 34, died in January along with 29 other Marine infantrymen and a medic in a helicopter crash. His remains are being kept in a Roseville crypt.

    “We should be talking about the wonderful things he did for his country, his family and friends instead of … where we’re going to bury him,” Judge Diane Druzinski said.

    Klein’s mother, Rae Oldaugh, wants her son buried in the new Great Lakes National Cemetery. Groundbreaking was held in October, but the cemetery is not expected to be ready for burials until August at the earliest.

    Klein’s father, Manfred Klein, apparently also wanted his son buried there but became frustrated by delays. The Klein family now wants to bury Allan in a private cemetery where one of his paternal grandparents is interred.

    Manfred Klein said his son never specifically talked about what should happen if he died.

    This is truly a pathetic situation, and I don’t mean that derisively towards anyone involved. The soldier should’ve made his wishes clear before going into harm’s way, but one is very reticent to speak ill of the fallen. One parent wants all deserved honors; the other wanted the same but has seemingly found a need for closure. From the available details, neither can really be faulted.

    I do not envy the judge in this matter.

  • Police Kill Man With Grenade at Courthouse

    That’s not a very good headline — it should be made clear that the police did not use a grenade to kill a man. Well, on the bright side, there’s one less nutjob in the Seattle area.

    A man carrying a hand grenade and shouting threats was shot dead by police Monday in the lobby of the federal courthouse.

    The grenade was inactive, but police could not see that as the man held it in his hand, Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said.

    Witnesses said the man, wearing a backpack that he later strapped to his chest, tried to get past security and began shouting threats. Kerlikowske said the backpack contained a cutting board.

    The man “often frequented the courthouse as well as the federal building,” U.S. Marshal Eric Robertson said, adding he had a “disdain” for the federal government.

    The medical examiner’s office said it would not identify the man until Tuesday.

    In the lobby, a guard saw the man take the grenade out of his backpack, then try to walk across a ledge next to a pool that blocks public access to a secured area, Robertson said.

    Judges, jurors, employees and prisoners in the 23-story federal building were evacuated. Meanwhile, security officers tried talking to the man, but he refused to put the grenade down. He also carried a sheaf of papers, including some court documents and what authorities described as a living will.

    After about 25 minutes of negotiations with police, “the man made a furtive movement,” Robertson said. “At that point the officers had no choice but to stop that threat.”

    An officer with a .223-caliber rifle and another with a shotgun each fired once at the man, who fell to the floor still holding the grenade.

    Bomb squad members determined the grenade had been drilled out and was inactive.

    Luckily for the unidentified corpse, this is not grounds for disenfranchisement in the state of Washington, at least not in a gubernatorial election.

  • Think You Know Terror?

    Want to strut your opinions? Chad at In the Bullpen is looking for guest bloggers (as well as offering reciprocal links). To help you understand the focus of his site, here’s a great terror round-up Chad put together today.

  • Two Interesting Links on Iraq

    Is it a unilateral action? Chrenkoff makes it obvious the, despite the scheduled and unscheduled departure of some members, the Coalition is still a great representation of the international community.

    Are we losing? Dean Esmay examines the trends of Coalition combat deaths.