Among the many family members of U. S. soldiers serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, or both, who e-mailed comments to msnbc.com’s Gut Check America project, many said they feel that the American public is not interested or invested in the conflicts in which their loved ones are risking their lives. One such submission led us to a support group formed with the help of the Veterans Education Project in Amherst, Mass., which allows military family members to share their anxiety and experiences with others in the same situation. Click here to hear some of their stories. |
GSFSO is a chapter of MFSO MFSO is a 501(c)3 organization. All contributions are tax deductible. |
Robert Cray features the AFSC exhibit, Eyes Wide Open in his video "Twenty" View it here |
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| ©2005-2008, Gold Star Families Speak Out, gsfso.org, Gold Stars Speak All rights reserved © Formed in 2005, Gold Star Families Speak Out is a chapter of Military Families Speak Out and is a peace based organization for relatives of members of the military who have been killed or lost their life during the period including the build-up to the war in Iraq (fall, 2002) to the present. We believe the best way to support our troops is to bring them home now and take care of them when they get here. Contact us at gsfso@gsfso.org Our parent organization, MFSO is a 501(c)3 organization. All contributions are tax deductible. |
Cost of the War in Iraq
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| Gold Star Families Speak Out is a chapter of Military Families Speak Out, is comprised of members whose loved ones served in the military during the period including the build-up to the war in Iraq (fall, 2002) to the present, and have been killed or have died. We believe the best way to support our troops is to BRING THEM HOME NOW and to take good care of them when they get here. |
| GOLD STAR MOM SPEAKS OUT (blog) |
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Sgt Patrick Ryan McCaffrey Foundation for War Veterans a 501c3 Nonprofit Corporation |
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| SPECIAL NEWSWEEK ISSUE THE WAR IN THE WORDS OF THE DEAD What do they have to say to us? This special issue of NEWSWEEK is an attempt to answer that question. We have collected the correspondence of American soldiers at war in Iraq, accounts written not for the public but for those they loved—wives, husbands, children, parents, siblings. Each of the warriors whose words are excerpted here died in the line of duty. |
MYTHIC SOLDIERS OR PUBLICITY PAWNS (WATCH THE VIDEO) |
LAFAYETTE, CA MEMORIAL CROSSES a multimedia presentation David Mendelson © |
| Please join Gold Star Families Speak Out and endorse the Iraq Moratorium The Iraq Moratorium will be an escalating, monthly series of actions demanding an end to the war. Join us Friday, September 19th and continuing the Third Friday of every month thereafter, we will make a break with business as usual. www.iraqmoratorium.org |
| Heroes at Home The stories of two remarkable women and how they are dealing with the realities of lives changed forever by war because loved ones were killed or injured fighting in Iraq. (watch video) |
| Gut Check America - The war at home Military Families Reflect on their children's service at war |
| VETERAN SUICIDE EPIDEMIC- CBS EVENING NEWS 11.13.2007 (CBS) They are the casualties of wars you don’t often hear about - soldiers who die of self-inflicted wounds. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those who have served in the military. But a five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively. “I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life. "I opened up the door and there he was," recalled Mike Bowman, the father of an Army reservist. "I saw the hose double looped around his neck,” said Kevin Lucey, another military father. "He was gone,” said Mia Sagahon, whose soldier boyfriend committed suicide. [more] Watch the video, and here |
| Another name added to Tracy War Memorial 11.13.07 Tracy observed another solemn Veterans Day at the city’s war memorial today as a sixth name was added under Operation Iraqi Freedom Sgt. 1st Class Tung Nguyen’s name was carved into the stone monument last week and was unveiled as more than 200 people showed up in respect of military veterans. “It’s an honor,” said James Cracraft, Nguyen’s foster brother, who represented the family during the unveiling. Nguyen came to the U.S. from Vietnam at age 15 and joined the U.S. Army right after he graduated from Tracy High School in 1986. He made the Army his career and was a member of the elite Green Berets. [more] |
| COMMENTARY- The Disgraceful Treatment of Our Veterans 12.14.07 As you do your holiday shopping this year and think about a big turkey dinner and piles of gifts and the good life that most Americans enjoy, please spare a thought for those who made it all possible: Those who serve in our military and the veterans who've worn the uniform. There are some new statistics that give us reason to be ashamed for the way that our country has treated those who've served and sacrificed for us. Those statistics damn the politicians who start every speech by thanking the troops and veterans and blessing them. They indict our national leaders who turn up at military bases and the annual conventions of veteran's organizations and use troops and veterans as a backdrop for their photo-ops. [more] |
| Democrats Protest Smith 12.06.07 A small contingent of dedicated Democrats protested late Wednesday morning against Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith and his stance on the Iraq war. Local activist Ben Talley led Pendletonians Peter Walters and Barbara Wright, who at times lofted signs saying "Stop Gordon Smith." A couple of others later joined the hardy band that was part of a statewide action the Democratic Party of Oregon organized to send a message to Smith and voters. The protest lasted from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Smith's offices in Portland, Medford, Eugene, Bend and downtown Pendleton. [more] |
| Once Again, Military Families Urge Congress to Stop Funding Military Occupation of Iraq- 12.14.07 As Budget Deal Approaches, Families of Servicemen and Women Voice Disapproval of “Spineless” Congress WASHINGTON - December 14 -- Just before Congress recesses for the year, and days before funding for the federal government is set to run out, Congress is on the verge of making a deal that will involve funding a limited number of domestic issues in exchange for the inclusion of funds President Bush has been seeking to continue the war in Iraq. Members of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) are outraged with those in Congress who profess to be against the war in Iraq, yet help broker and support a budget deal that continues to fund it. “Congress will once again be complicit in permitting an illegal and immoral war to continue unchecked. They continue to buy this war, and now they own it lock stock and barrel,” said Nancy Lessin, co-founder of MFSO. She added, “Military and Gold Star families who have been speaking out against the war in Iraq are not fooled by Members of Congress who plan to vote against the budget package they have just brokered or allowed to happen. They continue to betray our troops, their families and this nation by facilitating the funding of a war based on lies.” [more] |
| Dad's plea for mental health care: 'Make VA go to the soldier' 12.12.07 At the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, there was an eruption of emotion on Capitol Hill for 23-year-old Army Specialist Tim Bowman -- an Illinois National Guardsman who completed a combat tour in Iraq, came home and killed himself Funding for veterans' mental health services is up, with more than $1 billion added to the budget since 2001. His father, Mike, spoke of the agony. "As my family was preparing for a 2005 Thanksgiving meal, our son Timothy was lying on the floor, slowly bleeding to death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His war was now over, his demons were gone." His parents Mike and Kim are on Capitol Hill to talk about what they believe is a crisis in mental health care for troubled veterans. "When these veterans come home, they find an understaffed, under-funded, under-equipped VA mental health system that has so many challenges to get through it that many just give up trying," said Mike Bowman. [more] Watch Mike Bowman's testimony |
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| GOLD STAR OPINION 3900 DEAD US SOLDIERS- KAREN MEREDITH 12.27.07 On January 1st, 2007 we marked the 3000th dead US soldier in Iraq. Nearly one year later, we mark the death of the 3900th dead US soldiers. 900 young men and women never coming home, 900 families torn apart, turned upside down in 2007. Did you hear this sad statistic on your local news? Unlikely. The AP published a very short story, Forbes picked it up. Not one of the network news affiliates in the San Francisco Bay area covered the story on their websites, not yahoo.com, not cnn.com. Nothing, nada, zip and zero. We did hear about the first families holiday celebration at Camp David; the president gave his wife a silver tray and purse and she gave him a new coat [more] |
| GOLD STAR OPINION- A GOLD STAR FAMILY HOLIDAY Amy Branham 12.17.07 A Gold Star Family is a family who has had a member of their immediate family killed in the line of duty during a time of war. At the time of this writing, there were 3,892 Gold Star Families just since the beginning of the war (or occupation) of Iraq. In my group, Gold Star Families Speak Out, we also include the families of those men and women who have taken their own lives. So, just how does a Gold Star Family celebrate the holidays? The answer is most of us do not. At least not for the first couple of years. [more] |
| Bush loses ground with Military Families- 12.7.07 Times Bloomberg Poll A majority disapprove of the president's handling of the war in Iraq and are more in line with the views of the general public. WASHINGTON -- Families with ties to the military, long a reliable source of support for wartime presidents, disapprove of President Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq, with a majority concluding the invasion was not worth it, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. The views of the military community, which includes active-duty service members, veterans and their family members, mirror those of the overall adult population, a sign that the strong military endorsement that the administration often pointed to has dwindled in the war's fifth year. [more] |
| GOLD STAR OPINION- WHAT WILL YOU DO IN 2008? KAREN MEREDITH 1.1.2008 Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. (Haile Selassi) I'm not sure there are many, including members of the 110th Congress themselves, who are particularly happy with what was accomplished in Washington DC in 2007. There was much hope after the November 2006 election that we would see real changes in the direction our country was headed; there was hope, finally, for a beginning to the end of the occupation in Iraq. Sadly, we are no closer to getting our military out of Iraq now than in November 2006 or even March 2003. We hear that the presidential candidates are either planning to leave troops in Iraq for decades, as we have in Korea, or increase the number of troops there to restore order. [more] |
| Wayne farmer drawn into war debate after son's death 1/08/2008 “The people of Iraq are no threat to our freedom,” he said. “Those people are poor. Those people are just so poor they couldn’t afford a bus ticket to the filling station." NORMAN, Okla. — John Scripsick would rather have been farming. Scripsick, who owns land near Wayne, said he really didn’t want to attend Monday’s political forum at the University of Oklahoma. If he had his choice, he said, he would have been home “working cattle.” But Scripsick didn’t work cattle Monday. Instead, he stood quietly at the intersection of Boyd Street and Elm Avenue on the OU campus, just outside the Catlett Music Center. Scripsick was there with a handful of peace activists calling for an end of the Iraq war. [more] |
| Gold Star Fathers to Demonstrate for End of Iraq War at Bloomberg Forum Two Oklahoma Fathers who have lost their sons in the Iraq war are leading a demonstration on Monday, January 7th, during the Bloomberg Bipartisan Forum taking place on the OU Campus. Warren Henthorn, of Choctaw, OK, along with John Scripsick, of Wayne, OK, are both determined to remind the country's elected officials that the majority of Americans want the war to end and the troops to come home now. Henthorn and Scripsick with gather at 10 am with others, on the east side of Elm Street, across from the Catlett Music Center where the Bloomberg event is scheduled to begin at 11 am. Warren Henthorn, whose son Army Spc. Jeffrey Henthorn was killed in Iraq in 2005, said there is no end in sight for the war. Though some were surprised when he first started speaking out, Henthorn said more people have moved to his side as the war continues. "The main purpose of speaking out is to stop the war to spare other families from going through what mine has,” he said. [more] |
| Orange Hold Vigils for Fallen Soldiers Military families are honoring the fallen and calling for an end to the Iraq War Vickie Castro VIDEO |
| Bay Area remembers fallen soldiers 3.24.08 The war in Iraq has killed 4,000 Americans after five years of fighting. Every one of those war deaths is a blow to the heart of family members. In Benicia, the gold star in an apartment window has faded, a bit, during the past three years, unlike the love of a mother who still mourns her lost son. "I see his picture every morning and every night when I go to bed. He is still with me," said gold star mother Shamma Shumney. . [more] VIDEO |
March 19th, 2008
Celeste Zappala has been outspoken against the war since her son died serving in Iraq back in 2004
March 19th, 2008
| Oklahoma City Vigil 3.19.08 Gold Star Fathers Warren Henthorn & John Scripsick VIDEO |
March 19th, 2008
Tracy Miller
| WALK FOR PEACE 3.15.08 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK Warren Henthorn VIDEO |
| Gold Star Mother Nadia McCaffrey talks about her son, Sgt Patrick McCaffrey |
Group housing for vets raises concerns Fear, misconceptions raise concerns about transitional housing for vets with PTSD 3.19.08 Merry Lane, a cul-de-sac shaded by redwoods in Sonoma County wine country, would seem a pleasant place to recover from the psychic wounds of war. Nadia McCaffrey's dream is to set up a group home there for veterans plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder. But she is running into stiff resistance from the neighbors. They not only object to the brand-new structure itself, which looks like a four-story apartment house wedged amid their cabins, they are also worried that deranged veterans will move in.[more] |
| Local Grannies Protest Iraq War 3.19.08 The call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade and on Wednesday, the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War, they used clothes pins and "dirty laundry" to send the message that the war should be washed out. [more] |
| 5 years 5 years ago, we didn’t know The sorrow the pain Tears falling like rain The heartache and sadness Rips through us like a bullet We only have to remember 5 years ago When you where still here At the time it seemed clear The scars of war are sometimes hard to see No one knows what goes on inside of me Honor and courage, heroes indeed My brother, son, daughter, nephew… People we need! Connie Green In honor of my Brother SSG Jamie Huggins KIA 10.26.2003 “for you I carry on” |
| GOLD STAR OPINION- EASTER 2008 KEVIN & JOYCE LUCEY 3.23.08 On this day as we celebrate Life and the Resurrection, there are so many of us bearing the burdens of loss, grief and bewilderment - and some of us who even struggle the struggles with faith and hope. The timing of this year's Easter coincided with the fifth anniversary of the war; our son's 27th birthday and with the rapidly approaching formal 4000th casualty of this war - the true number of casualties being so much more than the " formal " numbers indicate The timing also collided with Bush's ineffective reasoning and rationales for the war which appear to be forever changing - but finally appearing to be finally reflecting with our son's opinion for their launching this war ... the oil ...and Cheney's disdain for the American people [more] |
From the March 14, 2008 "Crisis in Veteran's Healthcare" panel. Joyce and Kevin Lucey are the parents of Corporal Jeffrey Lucey, who killed himself on June 22nd, 2003 after returning from a tour in Iraq. Joyce and Kevin Lucey are currently suing the Department of Veterans affairs arguing the VA was negligent in caring for their son. A VA Inspector General’s Report notes VA officials turned Jeffrey Lucey a few days before he took his own life. JOYCE LUCEY Testimony KEVIN LUCEY Testimony |
| For Inland military families, fifth anniversary of Iraq war has different meanings 3.18.08e As the United States observes the five-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq today, the date means many things to those in the Inland area, a region that has lost more than 70 military personnel in Middle East battles. Residents of Twentynine Palms, where about 160 Marines returned from Iraq on Tuesday, said the war in Iraq has left them frustrated, tired, a little weary. The faith in their sons and husbands and loved ones remains as strong as it did when the first shots were fired on March 20, 2003. For Vickie Castro, of Corona, the date has been hijacked from one of happiness -- she was married on March 19, 1983 -- to one of sadness and frustration. Her 21-year-old son, Jonathan, died days before Christmas 2004 at a mess hall in Mosul, Iraq. [more] |
March 19th, 2008
| Tallying up the human costs of war 3.19.2008 It’s been five years since the United States began war in Iraq and seven years in Afghanistan. Yet according to a survey recently released by the Pew Research Center, more than one-quarter of the American public — 28 percent, to be exact — is unaware that nearly 4,000 U.S. troops have died in Iraq over the past five years. No matter what the reason, there is a disconnect among the people of the United States and the impact of the wars our nation is waging, both here and abroad. [more] |
August 15th, 2008
| IN MEMORIAM Alfred M. Zappala, 68, from Philadelphia, PA. died on August 14, 2008 after a courageous battle with cancer. Al was the father of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, who was killed in action in Baghdad, Iraq on April 26, 2004. Al was a founding member of Gold Star Families Speak Out and a tireless witness and advocate for peace & justice. Al was a devoted husband (Joan Kosloff), father (Dante & Raphael Zappala), grandfather of 9 & friend to many. Al will be deeply missed by his many friends, family and Gold Star Families Speak Out. Services will be held September 13 in Philadelphia, PA view sign his guest book |