Mystery surrounds death of soldier

[unhappycamper]

Mystery surrounds death of soldier
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | October 2, 2007

The Massachusetts National Guard soldier from Quincy who died in Afghanistan Friday was found with a single bullet in her head lying near her church on a secure military base, her family said yesterday after a briefing from Army officials.

The Department of Defense said in a statement yesterday that Ciara Durkin's injuries came from a "non-combat related incident" that is under investigation. The statement contradicts a Sunday statement from the Massachusetts Army National Guard that said Durkin, an Army specialist, was killed in action. A guard spokesman said the term was meant to imply that Durkin was deployed in Afghanistan at the time of her death.

"We're completely in the dark," said Pierce Durkin, the soldier's 28-year-old brother. "Patience is probably dissipating."

Family members, who are pushing for more information from Army officials, are girding for the possibility that Ciara (pronounced Kee-ra) Durkin was killed by a fellow service member, intentionally or accidentally, at the Bagram Airfield. They said they are confident that she did not commit suicide.

"The family has been going over this several times," Pierce Durkin said. "There is nothing to indicate that it could have possibly been self-inflicted."

The unusual case is drawing intense interest from Ireland, where Durkin, 30, and most of her family were born and where three siblings live. Her family is appealing to the Irish government, in addition to American congressmen, for additional help in clearing up the details of her death. A US Central Command spokesman in Afghanistan, reached by telephone yesterday, did not provide further details to a reporter.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/10/02/mystery_surrounds_death_of_soldier/

[Breeze54]

1. I heard last night that her family wants an investigation.

This is a suspicious death!! It needs to be investigated!

[MnFats]

2. Pat Tillman deja vu. n/t

[Breeze54]

3. Seems that way but this is even worse!

As she was on her base, not in combat!

I wonder if there is a rape involved? :shrug:

Killed to cover it up?

[MnFats]

4. i mentioned it that way because...

...i hate to say it but i think that poor woman's family is in for a hellish time. how will they ever be sure they've heard the truth?

[Breeze54]

5. I don't know and the TV news said that the family

had been told that an investigation could take over two months.

I hope they get some answers.

[NYVet]

6. Speculation is not going to help the investigation.

This had only happened on Friday. Give the investigators time to find out what happened.

[Maq]

7. sexual assault may be very common in a War Zone

No one should envy the position of a woman (civilian or a soldier) in a War Zone. In addition to the mental pressures of daily warfare, She'll have to watch her male counterparts for they are more dangerous than the enemy. And she is always out numbered.


Abbie Pickett (left) with fellow soldier Spc. Heather Homewood at the ‘spider hole’ where U.S. troops found Saddam Hussein in December 2003
...But another factor may be that many women soldiers have been victims of sexual abuse. Patricia Resick, director of the Women's Health Sciences Division of the VA’s National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, says that women who join the military are more likely to have family sexual abuse histories than women in civilian life. That may even drive some to join, Resick says....


Other women vets were sexually assaulted while in the service. Pickett, for example, says she was sexually assaulted by an older officer when she was 19. She regrets now that she didn’t report it. Sexual abuse and combat stress is a sure recipe for PTSD because the disorder is more common and worse for those who have suffered an earlier trauma—especially something personal, according to PTSD experts. “PTSD doesn’t just come from having a near-death experience but how personalized it is,” Resick explains. ...
...They haven’t reached Pickett yet. “The closest place I have to go for help is 90 miles a way,” she says. “You have to make it easy for troops. Especially when it’s hard enough just to get up in the morning.”
SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8471505/site/newsweek/
By Martha Brant
Newsweek
Updated: 8:03 a.m. ET July 5, 2005

[rakeeb]

8. male counterparts are more dangerous than the enemy....

wow. Broad brush much? Yes there are dirtnecks in every branch of service, but about 2 million of them aren't dirtnecks.
There will be an investigation, even if the family hadn't asked, even if a soldier commits an obvious suicde with witnesses there is an investigation.
Whatever the results are, her death will be no less tragic.