Capt. Christopher J. Sullivan Hometown

Benjamin E. Mejia

Friday, June 02 2006 @ 04:33 PM EDT

www.ecnnews.com -- SALEM — The day he left for Iraq, Benjamin Mejia left message on the dry erase board in his family's Mason Stree home

"Be good to each other," he wrote. "Know everything will be OK, and I'll be back."

Kathy Khan will never erase that message. It's the last one her son left.

"Every time I talked to him he said, 'Don't worry, everything's going to be fine,'" his mother said yesterday. "He always told me, 'I'll get through anything.' "

It was easy to believe him. He was a young man who always managed to achieve his goals, no matter the obstacles, his family and friends said yesterday.

"Whatever he wanted, he got," his best friend Sandra Mulvany said. "He was very determined."

Mejia joined the Army in June of 2003, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. He knew right away he would be heading to Iraq.

"I looked at him and said, 'Are you crazy?' " his mother recalled. "He said, 'Mom, I want to help my country.' "

Mejia, an Army specialist, wanted to serve on the front lines — to "earn the right to call himself a combat veteran," Mulvany said — but instead he was assigned to a unit flying unmanned spy planes. He was due to come home in August.

A sharp dresser with a keen sense of style, Mejia was proud of the weight he had lost since joining the Army. He spent much of his free time there in the gym — where he went on Wednesday for a routine workout.

"He was in the gym working out (and) he collapsed," said Sgt. 1st Class Richard Guzofski, an Army spokesman. "They tried to revive him. He was evacuated to the hospital," where he died.

Guzofski said the Army will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

"I still can't believe he's not here," Khan said.

'The kid you want in an emergency'

Although he grew up in Salem, Mejia did not attend Salem High School. The only boy in a house full of women — his mother, grandmother and three sisters — Mejia was, his mother recalled fondly, a "terror." In need of a male role model, he moved to Florida at 15 to live with his father.

After high school, Mejia stayed in Florida and came to consider the state home. But he remained close to his Salem family; when his mother fell ill several years ago, he moved from Florida to Salem to be with her.

"He left all his friends, his father, everything," Khan recalled. "That kid moved and left everything he knew as home in three days."

Mejia had always been there when his family needed him. He once saved his mother's life with the Heimlich maneuver and twice rescued his sister from drowning in a swimming pool.

"This is the kind of kid you want in an emergency," his mother said.

But he also had another side. He would get down on the floor and play with his nieces and nephews. He was funny, with a dry sense of humor and an eye for irony. He talked about wanting to meet a woman he would love for her intelligence, not her looks.

"He was the guy all the girls wanted," Mulvany said.

'Making a difference'

Mejia's friends and family were surprised by his decision to join the Army, but Mulvany said he found himself in Iraq.

"When he went over to Iraq, that's when it really became (clear) in his eyes what the mission was about, meeting the Iraqi people and the children," Mulvany said. "I think he felt like he was making a difference, and that's him. He wants to make a difference. He wants to leave his mark."

Mulvany urged his younger sister to do the same.

"He wanted me to do something with my life," his sister Siobhan said. "He wanted me to follow what he did."

Mejia's own goals were simple. He planned to leave the Army when his commitment ended and return to Florida to start a business with his father. He wanted to get married and have children. Mulvany said he seemed ready to settle down.

"I watched him go from being a boy to being a man in the last three years," she said. "Once he went over to Iraq, it was just amazing to watch him grow up."

Mejia himself was aware of the change.

"I have grown up so much over the last few years," he wrote on his Web site last month. "I remember when I was 18 thinking I was grown up. Not quite. I am 25 years old now and more self aware than ever before. I think I have done more than I was ever expected to, and I'm not done yet. As a matter of fact, I'm just getting started."

COALITION FORCES TRACK DOWN TERRORISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR KILLING MND-B SOLDIERS

Release Number: 06-06-02PE

Description: Editor’s note – this provides additional information beyond that which was provided in press release 20060620-01. A clarification to that release – the one KIA mentioned during the search was Spec. Babineau. No other Soldiers died during the search efforts. The information in this release will be briefed in detail by MG Thurman at the press conference tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.

BAGHDAD, Iraq – While military medical examiners officially confirmed the identities of two Soldiers found dead near Yusufiaya Thursday, Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces intensified efforts to track down and bring to justice the terrorists responsible for murdering three Multi-National Division – Baghdad troops June 16.

Spec. David J. Babineau was killed during an attack on a three-man security team manning a checkpoint before the terrorists overwhelmed the position, taking Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker to an unknown location and later killing them.

The attack occurred south of Yusufiyah where the Soldiers were guarding a canal crossing next to the Euphrates River. Within one hour of the attack, the immediate area was cordoned off by both air and ground forces and search operations began.

A combined and joint force of more than 8,000 Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces assembled to take part in the search. The force included three MND-B brigade combat teams, Iraqi army, national and local police, adjacent units from Multi-National Force – West, Navy and Air Force aircraft and other Coalition Forces.

The Coalition and ISF used all available resources including, air, ground and water to locate the Soldiers. While Air Force para-rescue dive teams searched the canals, engineers patrolled the Euphrates River and Coalition unmanned aerial vehicles and helicopters patrolled from the sky.

Twenty-five military operations were conducted, including 11 air assault missions. More than 12 villages and an old power plant were searched. In the massive effort to locate the missing Soldiers, 12 CF Soldiers were wounded.

Six caches were discovered. Two of the weapons caches were found in the power plant. Some of the contraband found in the caches included a suicide vest, gun powder, plastic explosives with detonation cord, grenades, AK-47s, and homemade rocket launchers with several rockets.

Throughout the process, Iraqi citizens from across Baghdad provided almost 80 tips, which were all investigated. Coalition Soldiers engaged local religious, community and political leaders to maintain support and gain information.

In an attempt to thwart the search effort, the enemy conducted a series of harassing attacks with improvised-explosive devices and indirect fire, all of which failed to stop the search. Ten IEDs detonated and 17 were found by searchers before detonation.

Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces detained 36 suspected anti-Iraqi forces involved in the murders and killed two enemy fighters. Coalition Forces surged interrogation operations around-the-clock for three days while the search for the Soldiers continued.

Acting on a tip from a local Iraqi tribal leader and another one from a detainee, MND-B Soldiers discovered the two sets of remains June 19 at approximately 7:50 p.m. next to a road near the village of Mufaraji, northwest of Yusufiyah. The local Iraqi also informed the Soldiers to watch for explosives.

To ensure the safety of the Soldiers, the commander established security and cordoned the area to wait until daylight to approach the bodies. An explosive ordnance disposal team arrived on site to clear the route. At first light, the engineers cleared the route up to the site of the bodies, fighting their way through three roadside bombs in the process.

The two bodies, severely traumatized, were found bound together with an IED between one of the Soldiers' legs. The engineers successfully cleared the IED and the surrounding area to allow recovery of the remains.

The remains were airlifted to a Coalition morgue near Baghdad International Airport by 8:25 a.m. Tuesday before they were sent to Dover Air Force Base, Del.

A formal investigation has been directed by Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, the commanding general of MND-B, to determine the facts surrounding the attack on the Soldiers.

Two Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists were killed in this operation, to include a senior AQI lieutenant.

The search continues for additional terrorists responsible for the barbaric attack. Forty detainees from previous operations have been interrogated about their connection with individuals linked to the murder of the Soldiers. Of the 36 detainees taken during the search, 13 are providing intelligence of value to the Coalition. Military specialists have conducted more than 92 interrogations. Two of the detainees have admitted to being Al Qaeda members and were captured in the vicinity of the remains.

"Precision direct action operations will continue as a result of the intelligence gleaned from those detained and the information gained from increased operations south of Baghdad," said Thurman. "MND-B, with the ISF, will continue to actively target terrorists and criminals who operate outside of the rule of law."

Iraq Court Convicts Killer of 2 Soldiers

Slaying of Americans A Pivotal Legal Case

Washington Post Foreign Service

BAGHDAD, Oct. 28 -- In the first case of its kind, an Iraqi judge Tuesday convicted an Iraqi man of abducting, torturing and killing two American soldiers in the summer of 2006.

Ibrahim Karim Muhammed Salih al-Qaraghuli was found guilty and sentenced to death after expert testimony that his fingerprints matched photos of bloody prints found on the front panel of the pickup truck used to drag the soldiers, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker. Citing lack of evidence, Judge Munther Raouf Haadi acquitted Qaraghuli's two co-defendants.

The proceeding cast a spotlight on the Iraqi court system, which has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as Iraqi and American officials have argued over whether Iraq should have the right to prosecute U.S. soldiers under certain circumstances as part of a yet-to-be-signed agreement regarding the presence of American troops in Iraq after 2008. The case decided Tuesday was the first in which an Iraqi investigative judge filed charges in the slaying of U.S. soldiers.

Insurgents abducted Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., on June 16, 2006, while the two soldiers were manning a checkpoint in Yusufiyah, a village south of Baghdad, in a then-volatile area known as the Triangle of Death. Their bodies were tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged through town. One of the soldiers was beheaded.

Col. Rafael Lara Jr., the chief of a U.S. military task force advising Iraqi court officials, said he was disappointed by the acquittals but satisfied by the way the case was handled.

"I'm very pleased to see the Iraqi judiciary exercise discretion and the rules of procedure," he said. "Iraqi courts have taken a good step today."

In Iraq's legal system, investigative judges interview witnesses, collect evidence and issue arrest warrants. A three-judge panel acts as the American equivalent of a presiding judge and jury.

The prosecutor assists with the investigation but plays a largely passive role during the proceeding. Defense lawyers are appointed to represent defendants.

The three defendants were escorted into the courtroom by Iraqi police officers and led into a wooden cage, where they stood facing the bench during the proceeding.

Haadi read summaries of statements from a half-dozen witnesses. One had died since he was interviewed; the rest ignored summons to appear in court.

The statements included somewhat contradictory accounts about the defendants and the abductions. The men who dragged the soldiers through the streets wore hoods, according to the witness statements. Nevertheless, some witnesses said they were able to identify some of the defendants.

Defense lawyers questioned the trustworthiness of accounts from witnesses who were unwilling to show up in court. One argued that the fingerprint evidence was suspect because American investigators handled the forensics in the case and may have digitally produced the match.

The three defendants said they were innocent. A Sunni insurgent group linked to the group al-Qaeda in Iraq asserted responsibility for the slayings and said they were retaliation for the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl by an American soldier.

U.S. officials said they found DNA evidence on a head scarf recovered from the crime scene that tied a second defendant to the crime. But the DNA evidence was not addressed during the proceeding because Iraqi judicial officials didn't want to use an American DNA expert and were unable to find an Iraqi expert, U.S. advisers said.

After issuing his verdict, Haadi ordered the other two defendants, Whalid Khalid Daydan Ibrahim al-Kartani and Kazim Fadhil Jasim Harbi al-Zowbai, released immediately.

Tucker and Menchaca were with the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), based at Fort Campbell, Ky. Spec. David J. Babineau, 25, a third soldier who was with them when they were abducted, was fatally shot on the spot. U.S. military officials found the two soldiers' bodies three days later. They were laden with explosives.

Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti



Hometown: Raynham, Massachusetts, U.S.

Age: 30 years old

Died: June 21, 2006 in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Unit: Army, 3rd Squadron, 71st Calvary, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

Incident: Killed when he encountered enemy forces using small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades during combat operations Gowardesh, Afghanistan.

Jared C. Monti

Killed in action, June 21, 2006, in Afghanistan, of Raynham, age 30 years, U.S. Army 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, NY. Son of Paul Monti of Raynham and Janet E. (Ross) Monti of Winterville, N.C.; brother of Niccole T. Monti of Winterville, NC, and Timothy J. Monti of Taunton; grandson of Marjorie Ross, the late Urvin A. Ross, Joseph B. Monti Sr. and Mary A. (Salverio) Monti; uncle of Carys E Monti of Winterville, NC. Also survived by many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Funeral Mass will be celebrated Saturday at 8 am in St. Ann's Church, Raynham. Followed by burial in Mass. National Cemetery, Bourne, at 10 am. Visiting hours are Thursday and Friday 2-4 and 7-9 pm.