posted on February 17, 2004 04:22:27 PM newFallen soldier's mother says her son 'died for absolutely nothing'
By John Tredrea , Staff Writer, Hopewell Valley News
02/12/2004
Generous, compassionate, warm, piercingly intelligent and insightful, frank and open about his feelings, and fun loving.
That is how Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, who was killed in Iskandariyah, Iraq on Feb. 3, is remembered by his grieving family. But their tumultuous emotional mix is replete with stinging anger and frustration, as well as overwhelming sorrow.
"My son died for absolutely nothing," Lt. Dvorin's mother, Sue Niederer, declared with quiet, forceful bluntness in her Hopewell Township home on Lake Baldwin Drive Friday. Ms. Niederer blames President George W. Bush personally for her son's death.
"Seth died for President Bush's personal vendetta," she said. "Bush put us where we should never have been. We're not even in a declared war."
Ms. Niederer says the growing national controversy over the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq proves that "we have a very big problem in this country. If the intelligence on which this war was based is as inefficient as it now appears to have been, there is something is seriously wrong here."
Ms. Niederer and other members of Lt. Dvorin's family also are upset that he may have been trying to diffuse an unexploded bomb when he was killed. He had no training in defusing bombs, they said.
"We're getting mixed stories from the Army, to say the least," Ms. Niederer said sardonically. "You won't get anything from them. They'll just tell you it's all under investigation. One officer I spoke to told me Seth was handling the bomb, attempting to deactivate it, when it went off, killing him. It took off a piece of his skull. Another officer told me that there is no way, absolutely no way, he was touching the bomb."
Ms. Niederer's admiration of her son was profound. "It's a great loss," she said. "What can I tell you? He was a great guy. Friendly. Warm. Kind-hearted. Very intelligent — that boy was smart as a whip. He was fun loving. He loved life and he enjoyed it. He liked to be with people and do things for them. He loved skiing and snowboarding, they were really big with him. And he loved his Mustang. I'll tell you the kind of son he was to me: He was the kind to tell you he loved you, then cry after he said it."
Lt. Dvorin was married less than six months. He and his wife, Kelly Harris Dvorin, were married at Fort Drum, his stateside base near Watertown, N.Y. Ms. Dvorin lives in Watertown.
"Their wedding was Aug. 26, five days before he shipped out to Iraq," Ms. Niederer said. "Kelly is a widow at age 25."
Both Ms. Niederer and her 27-year-old daughter Rebekah Dvorin used the same phrase in describing Lt. Dvorin. "He put himself before other people."
"How he died certainly proves that," his mother said. "He died a hero — he saved his men's lives — but he died in vain."
She said that, as she understands what happened from the confusing, sometimes contradictory, stories she has heard from the Army, her son was in the lead truck of a convoy that had been sent out to look for undetonated bombs and to disable any it found.
"There was a suspicious object lying in the middle of the road and they stopped the convoy," Ms. Niederer said. "Seth and the driver got out to see what it was. When Seth realized it was probably a bomb, he sent the driver back to the truck and waved everyone away. Then the bomb, which obviously was a booby trap, was remotely detonated, killing him."
Ms. Niederer is outraged that her son was put in the position of dealing with the bomb in the first place.
"His training was in air defense artillery," she said. "He had no training in defusing bombs. Why wasn't an expert handling this? What's particularly amazing to me is that this was a mission to defuse bombs and there apparently was no expert in that area in the lead vehicle. Since there wasn't, why weren't they rerouted around that bomb? I want answers. I'm not going to just be quiet. If I speak up, maybe someone else's son won't die for nothing the way my son did. If I don't speak up, then he will really died completely in vain."
Weeping profusely, Rebekah Dvorin said, "My brother? He was the best friend I ever could ask for. I'll treasure his memory the rest of my life. You could talk to him about anything. He was always there for me. I believe he died in vain, to settle President Bush's vendetta. I love and truly miss him."
Greg Niederer, Lt. Dvorin's stepfather, choked hard on his tears and only was able to say, "Seth was one of the best you could ask for. I watched him grow up. It's such a shame, to see what's happened to such a nice young man."
"It is indeed," agreed Lt. Dvorin's stepgrandmother, Florence Sapir. "War used to be an honorable thing. This one is as far from that as you can get. Seth died in vain. So did the more than 500 other soldiers who died over there. They died for nothing."
Seth Dvorin was a 1998 graduate of South Brunswick High School. He received a bachelor's degree in criminology from Rutgers University (Livingston College) in 2002 and enlisted in the Army right after graduating from college. He graduated from Officer Candidate School at Ft. Benning, Ga., and received his commission on Jan. 17, 2003. He also graduated from Airborne and Air Defense Artillery Schools, and was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., as part of the 10th Mountain Division, Battery B, 3rd Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment.
Sue Niederer said her son talked about going into the Army right after high school, but his family told him he had to go to college first. She said her son dreamed of a career in the FBI or CIA and was persuaded by an Army recruiter that he would have a better chance of reaching that goal if he were a military veteran.
"He also was promised that he would never go to combat," she said. "If he was in a war area, they told him, he would not be up front. My reaction to his going to Iraq was negative, to say the least. Seth's superior officer at Watertown also was against it. He told his superiors that Seth was still too wet behind the ears for that. He begged them not to send Seth. But they told him he was needed over there, and he went."
Ms. Niederer said that, since learning of her son's death, she asked U.S. Congressman Rush Holt, D-N.J., how many wives, husbands and children of U.S. congressmen and senators actually are in a war zone in Iraq.
"You know what he told me? None. Somebody tell me how fair that is," she said.
She put her head in her hands. "He was my son," she said. "I want his helmet. Why didn't he have a better helmet? I want his helmet."
AT HOPEWELL VALLEY CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, where Sue Niederer is a substitute teacher, students and teachers sent Lt. Dvorin messages of support and care packages this year.
"One day in early December, Ms. Niederer was covering my classes as a substitute teacher while I attended a workshop. Several of my students asked her why she looked so down and depressed," said teacher Alan Sattler on Tuesday. "Sue proceeded to tell them that her son was in Iraq and that his Army unit had been attacked twice since he had been there.
"The students volunteered to write letters to his unit. One student in particular, Eren Akyar, brought in a large American flag that he had hanging from his ceiling. Eren asked me if the class or classes could sign it and send it over to Seth. I said 'no problem' and I left the flag and some markers out so the remainder of my classes could sign it if they wished.
"It turned out that many of the students felt connected to Seth and his unit and wrote some really wonderful messages. The general sentiment from my classes was that 'we really appreciate what you're doing over there.'
"When Eren and his classmates presented Sue with the flag she was really touched and gave several of the students a big hug.
"Apparently Seth and his unit really appreciated the flag and he hung it in his tent. Sue brought in a picture of Seth and his unit wearing Santa hats in appreciation for the flag.
"As it turns out, we were just getting ready to have the classes send another batch of letters when he was killed. Sue came to school that day and said she would give the kids another name for them to write to. The letters really boosted their morale, so we will try to write as soon as we can."
Mr. Sattler said other teachers have sent care packages (Linda Towner and Ellen Davila). Some have sent letters with a message similar to that of the students — "We appreciate what you're doing, be safe, and come home soon."
posted on February 17, 2004 04:29:52 PM new
Thanks, Pat. Stories like this one make us realize that these are "real people" with families that are heartbroken.
His picture is at the bottom of this page that you posted a couple of weeks back.
posted on February 17, 2004 04:31:25 PM new
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight - nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety - is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill -
"If we had discovered that Hitler had been killing people other than Jews and that a million, not 6 million, had died, and that instead of Zyklon B gas he used other agents, would the United States have been less justified in removing him and his horrid regime from power? Saddam Hussein is gone. It is a good thing for Iraq and the world. An assessment of our intelligence capabilities should continue, but that investigation should not be politicized. It is too important for that." --Cal Thomas
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
--"WOW-- What a Ride!
posted on February 17, 2004 04:38:11 PM new
Bear, this young man was only 24. He wasn't
"thoroughly used up" or "totally worn out" and he barely had a chance for the long "Ride" that is offered to most.
posted on February 17, 2004 05:06:45 PM newNow read what wounded U.S. Soldiers are saying:
Published: 10-Feb-2004
By: Jonathan Miller, Channel4 News
The true extent of US casualties in Iraq are still unknown. This has fuelled suspicion that the administration may be hiding the true human cost of the war and its aftermath. Channel Four News has been allowed a rare opportunity to meet some of America's wounded soldiers.
In a dark corner of Andrews Air Force base on the outskirts of Washington DC, America's war-wounded come home.
The human cost of humbling tyrants.
No ceremony, no big welcome.
More than 11,000 medical evacuees have come through Andrews in the past nine months, the Air Force says.
Most, we suspect, from Iraq. But that's 8,000 more than the Pentagon says have been wounded there.
Most of those wounded in action come through the vast Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.
The American public is, for the most part, unaware that the true casualty count of the war in Iraq may actually be higher than official figures suggest.
The apparent discrepancy is fuelling suspicion that the US government's got something to hide.
There'd been a suicide at the Center the previous week. Another of what the Pentagon terms a "non-hostile" death - in other words, one that won't figure on its list of fatalities,
We were the first foreign TV crew to film at Walter Reed Army Medical Center since the invasion of Iraq one year ago.
One patient, Staff Sergeant Maurice Craft, had his leg blown off in November by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. He'd gone to liberate a land whose people turned out to be hostile. It was a nasty surprise :
"Doing that kind of operation over there, you don't really know who the enemy is. They use cowardly tactics, women and children."
Another patient, Staff Sergeant Roy Mitchell, lost his leg in Afghanistan three months ago:
"The ones that are covered are the KIAs. The “Killed in Action”. I'm not taking anything away from those soldiers. They deserve that coverage. But there is also us. To say we're forgotten, that would be going just a little bit too far to say we're forgotten but I'd say we are the missed soldiers of the army."
Says Sgt Craft, "A lot of people are getting hit. What they are showing are the deaths. They are not showing this here. They have a death toll but they're not showing the number of people being hit and being amputated because of their injuries.
Channel 4 News: "And in you're opinion, the number of wounded in action, the number wounded generally, is quite high?"
"Yes."
Students of modern military history could be forgiven a sense of deja-vu. It was to Walter Reed Medical Center that America's war-wounded from Vietnam were brought.
Numbers-wise, there's still no comparison. 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam; fewer than 600 have been killed in Iraq. But psychologically, Vietnam has a resonance that still shapes politics here.
Come November, President Bush, who never fought in South East Asia, may well be up against Senator John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam vet. Could that be why the dead and wounded return to Washington in the middle of the night with no fanfare?
The images the US government does want us to see depict the return of America’s heroes – such as arrival back at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, of the 101st Airborne division after a year in Iraq.
It was to have been a six-month tour of duty. They are the survivors, the lucky ones.
But when it comes to the wounded, an astonishing situation has arisen: the Pentagon's figures clash wildly with those of the US Army.
The Pentagon lists 2,604 wounded in action and just 408 "non-hostile wounded".
But the Army says many thousands more have been medically evacuated from the conflict zone.
Why the discrepancy? Well, the Pentagon doesn't count as victims soldiers who come back with brain injuries or psychiatric disorders, those hit by friendly fire or those who've crashed in their military vehicles.
You could call them "the missing wounded" of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Some suspect the government's been deliberately massaging the figures.
According to Steve Robinson, from the National Gulf War Resource Center:
"Information warfare is a tenet of war. It's part of the strategy in war and it's something we employ in Iraq to win to gain the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. And in some cases it looks as if the Department of Defense is employing information warfare back doing this at home by not releasing accurate information or making it difficult to obtain information. That prevents the story from being told or it makes it take longer for the story to be told or it frustrates people to where they don't even try to tell the story."
Steve Robinson is no anti-war liberal. A former Special Forces soldier with 20 years' service, he now briefs Presidents. He believes we're not being told the full story.
"People don't want bad news stories coming out from this war and at every level where I need information, every time I need information from the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans' Affairs, about the injuries of this war, I run unto obstacles. None of this is national security. None of this will cause the collapse of the coalition. It's just information that we need to understand what's happening."
Heath Calhoun, 24, wasn't able to walk off the plane with his brothers from the 101st Airborne. This was how he broke the news from his hospital bed in Mosul to his 21-year-old wife Tiffany : "I called her and I told her she could have the good news or the bad news. I said I've got my legs blown off, but the good news is I'm coming home."
Heath's Humvee crew was hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
"I didn't know what had happened. It hit and I saw a big burst of white powder and than I saw white and went flying into the air. I could see my legs were mucked up and blood coming out of them and I screamed.
He still wears the ID tag of his friend Morgan, who was blown to pieces.
Was it all worthwhile?
"I can't answer that question yet. If Iraq becomes and democracy, yes, but if it all falls apart, I think it will be in vain. We'll have to work that out."
This is a patriotic part of the south. Fort Campbell, headquarters of the 101st Airborne, straddles the state line between Tennessee and Kentucky. There is an awkwardness here when it comes to asking questions about America's adventure in Iraq.
There's a lot to work out and there's a lot going on inside the heads of some of these soldiers.
I went to meet some injured Iraq veterans on the base who'd formed a support group. Not a very macho thing to do, they admitted, but they said they needed to get stuff off their chests.
Pat Collins from New Jersey is 38. He took shrapnel though his neck in Baghdad and is in permanent pain.
"I was injured on patrol in Baghdad. Couple guys ambushed us. I've got nerve damage. A lot of pain. I took a lot of morphine. Readjusting. Getting my life back on track. I'm not going to do what I did before. Time to move on and find something else to do. I'm not going to what it was I did before."
His anger is, in some cases, producing political transformation.
Pat: "I was a Republican ... I'm going to be incredibly active in the Democratic Party once I get out."
And who's his democratic preference, we asked?
Pat: "Kerry."
It was at this point that we were asked to stop filming. Other members of the group had grown uneasy that things had taken a poltical turn.
Says Terry James, a Psychiatric Counsellor : "The only other war I can closely compare this with is Vietnam. When we went to Somalia, Bosnia, Panama, etc. once war was declared over, it was over. But this one is not over even though it' s declared over."
President Bush may have declared major combat operations in Iraq over ten months ago, but fresh planeloads of wounded soldiers continue to fly into Andrews Air Force base every week, unseen by most Americans.
If the US government was to admit to the true human cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the wounded as well as the dead, then how many Americans would support George Bush and his war?
For this alone, we must vote against George Bush. regardless of the economy shot to hell and all the suffering that poverty entails, this killing of our children for the Bush political agenda cannot be allowed to continue.
I am so sorry for all the families that have had their children and fathers and mothers maimed and wounded or killed in a war that is without justification.
posted on February 17, 2004 05:35:57 PM new
Well, wait 'til some savvy journalist uncovers that these post-war deaths and lifetime injuries are subject to some lower rate of benefits for both the dead soldiers' spouses/families and the wounded who will need costly medical care for years.
We're not at war anymore. Bush declared the war in Iraq over last May. The troops there ever since have comprised an occupying force. I don't read 'battle duty' in that; in fact, we're back to having a 'peacetime' army. And, yeah, the benefits accorded to 'wartime' Vets as opposed to 'peacetime' Vets are way different -- even though far more soldiers died/got wounded after the war than during it...
posted on February 17, 2004 05:48:36 PM new
"Not true."
More holographic imagery from your warped mind, Linda?
On May 1, 2003 George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing the end of major combat in the Iraq war. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating "Mission Accomplished". Bush's landing was criticized by opponents as overly theatrical and expensive. The banner, made by White House personnel (according to a CNN story) and placed there by the U.S. Navy, was criticized as premature - especially later as the guerrilla war dragged on.
It was soon found that "major combat" being over did not mean that peace had returned to Iraq. The U.S.-led occupation of Iraq thereupon commenced, marked by ongoing violent conflict between the Iraqi resistance and the occupying forces.
(I'm relying on you to bold the relevant words on your own... )
posted on February 17, 2004 06:49:29 PM new
Military duty is inherently dangerous duty. The risk of death ALWAYS is a possibility,k whether in training or in the field.
The fact that he was only 24, had only been married 5 days is irrelevant. Thousands of US soldiers encountered the same circumstances starting in the Revolutionary War to WW I, WW II, Korea & Vietnam. It is the price US soldiers & their family's have paid for freedom. If US fighting men had not sacrificed their lives we could well be speaking with a British accent, speaking French, Spanish or Mexican.
And Helen (or should we refer to you as Baghdad Helen), all your political/ military posturing is pure BS. But then your military experience is awe inspiring. Tell us of the sacrifices your family made while you were on active duty.
For this alone, we must vote against John
Kerry. regardless of the economy shot to hell and the promise of tax increases and all the suffering that poverty entails, this idol worship for the Kerry hero political agenda cannot be allowed to continue. No national defense, US troops under the direct control of the UN. Cut all defense spending, open the borders and allow any terrorist group to run rampant throughout America,
Not in this life time will a hypocrite like Kerry be elected president of the USA.
posted on February 17, 2004 06:59:29 PM new
"No national defense, US troops under the direct control of the UN. Cut all defense spending, open the borders and allow any terrorist group to run rampant throughout America... "
posted on February 17, 2004 07:06:59 PM new
The lefties never talk about the 3,000 innocent civilians killed on September 11. They act like it never happened.
posted on February 17, 2004 07:24:21 PM new
The neo-right never talk about why 9-11 happened, they don’t want to know; that’s why GW wanted Kissinger to investigate it and back him up with a whole $3Mill.
posted on February 17, 2004 07:30:49 PM new
If Bill Clinton simply took custody of Osama Bin Laden, 9/11 would never have happened. I guess Clinton was afraid of offending France and the UN.
[ edited by ebayauctionguy on Feb 17, 2004 07:31 PM ]
posted on February 18, 2004 08:12:05 AM new
Here is another good link about the history of U.S. Support of Osama Bin Laden while at the same time placing him on the FBI's most wanted list as the World's foremost terrorist. Pat posted it on another thread.
posted on February 18, 2004 12:13:36 PM new
Bear, your fascination with the cummings and goings of the plight of Australian sheep is always on the tip of your tongue.
Do you make an effort, each time you go to bed with them in mind, to wake up with solution in hand?
posted on February 19, 2004 09:18:38 AM new
No Austi, I leave that to you and your rubber boots..... "An old, long-whiskered man once said to Teddy Roosevelt: 'I am a Democrat, my father was a
Democrat, my grandfather was a Democrat.' Roosevelt then said: 'Then if your father had been a
horse thief and your grandfather had been a horse thief, you would be a horse thief?'" --Will Rogers
[ edited by ebayauctionguy on Feb 17, 2004 07:31 PM ]