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07:41 AM CST
One morning last winter, two soldiers in green dress uniforms came to Kathy Berry’s south Wichita home. They said her husband, Staff Sgt. David Berry, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. The shock wave reverberated around Wichita and a good part of Kansas that day. Small towns like Derby, Hillsboro and Wellington would all come to know bad news about their National Guardsmen serving in Iraq; Clearwater and Lancaster would, as well. Lives were disrupted, bodies broken and dreams shattered, and those linked to Berry’s unit — soldier and family member alike — took the hit. Troops in active duty units come from all over the country, but a National Guard unit is a microcosm of home.Was it a goat carcass? A dead dog in the road? The headlights caught only a dim shape. Whatever it was, Spc. Travis Waltner swerved his Humvee to the left. Just as he did, two things happened.
Every morning around 6, like clockwork, Spc. Johnny Jones would instant-message his wife. It was 3 p.m. in Iraq, but back home in Derby, Kan., her day would be just beginning.
The Black Hawks arrived in 13 minutes. The first one landed in a nearby field and sank in soft sand. Its spinning blades sent sand and dust everywhere and were so low that Staff Sgt. Kent Kirkham was practically on his knees as he wrestled aboard one of the critically wounded.
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