Michelle Witmer

[Charlie P]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/na...rint&position=

My wife had on the news this morning and thet were showing this girls funeral,first thing that came to my mind was why?

Then I hear that her two sisters are also in the military and might not go back to Iraq. Won't they be declared AWOL?

So what's up with this?

The death of Specialist Witmer, who was killed when her Humvee was attacked in Baghdad, attracted considerable attention after her father, John, urged his other daughters, who are also serving in the Guard in Iraq, to stay home after the funeral instead of returning to the units that they consider their other families. The sisters have not said what they will do.

But in the crowd that filled the church here Wednesday night to honor Specialist Witmer, relatives of other Wisconsin National Guard members were torn by the question. The death of Specialist Witmer, 20, brought the mounting dangers on the streets of Baghdad into clear focus for these military families of the 32nd Military Police Company. And then came the news that their own soldiers "” Specialist Witmer's colleagues "” would have to stay in Iraq even longer than planned, their tours extended by as much as four months.

[kevin1]

Death is just one of the many occupational hazards of military life ,
Ms. Witmer understood that pretty clearly when she enlisted . I enlisted during peacetime only to have 3 of my shipmates get killed on a routine deployment . That , by the way , is the Navy's average loss per ship during such deployments . It's higher than that in a hostile fire zone .

Her sisters should stay the course , they understood the risks too .

[etothepii]

Wasn't that an offer made to those girls by the military? From what I heard, they did not ask for special treatment. It's like a Private Ryan thing, right?

[stealthycat]

Another reason to not have women in combat areas of the military. Did any of the men who have been killed have siblings that refused to go back to their duties ?

women ... geeeesh !!

[WANWTF]

It isn't like they are going AWOL - they were offered it under some act where as if a sibling is killed, other siblings also serving can request different duty than that of the war zone.

Have they decided then, not to return?

[Charlie P]

WANWTF, Your right. Didn't understand what was going on, or how it worked.

[Jimmy S]

I think the "Sullivan Act" may come into play here. I do know the two other sisters were give the choice to return or not, without any consequence.