Deaths bring war home to Maryland

In grim span of 5 days, news arrives that 4 soldiers from state killed in Iraq

By Chris Guy and JoAnna Daemmrich | Sun Staff

November 18, 2004

Beverly Fabri, mother of Army Pvt. Bryan N. Spry, killed at 19, says she can't watch television without crying. (Sun photo by Christopher T. Assaf / November 17, 2004)

In one awful span of five days, messengers in crisp dress uniforms have brought the war in Iraq to Maryland's doorstep, delivering grim news to the families of four slain soldiers. Their faces - smiling, or stoic, too young all of them - are haunting in newspaper photographs, reminding a community, supporters and critics of the war alike, of its cost.

Tracy Miller, who learned Sunday that her son, Marine Cpl. Nicholas Lee Ziolkowski, had been killed, keeps thinking that the world would be a better place had he lived.

Tia Steele says she won't let the death Friday of her stepson, Marine Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, "be for nothing."

And Beverly Fabri, in mourning since her son, Army Pvt. Bryan Nicholas Spry, died in February, says she still can't sleep without pills or watch television without crying.

"No one should have to go through this," Steele said.

Since the fighting began a year and a half ago, the war has sometimes felt far from Maryland. But not when Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Waters-Bey of Baltimore died in a helicopter crash on the second day of the invasion. Not when a Maryland-based unit was linked to atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison. And not now, when word has come of four Maryland soldiers killed in less than a week.

Even before the two Marines went to Tracy Miller's home in Towson to deliver the "worst possible news" about her son, she grieved for all the young men and women killed in Iraq. "I felt an overwhelming sorrow for those families," Miller said. Now her Nick, who was 22, is among the dead.

The Pentagon in the past week reported the deaths of four enlisted men from Maryland - Army Spc. Thomas K. Doerflinger, 20, of Silver Spring; Marine Cpl. Dale A. Burger Jr., 21, of Port Deposit; Branning, 21, of Cockeysville, and Ziolkowski.

With heavy fighting in the city of Fallujah apparently beginning to spread across northern Iraq, the families of the dead continue to disagree over U.S. policy. But they are steadfast in their admiration for those lost and in their support of soldiers still fighting.

Beverly Fabri says she cries every time she thinks of her son, every time another soldier is added to the list of U.S. troops killed in Iraq - now more than 1,200 names long.

"I just want to reach out and offer some kind of comfort to those families," said Fabri, whose son, who was 19, died Feb. 13 when the Humvee he was driving crashed into a ditch - just nine months after his high school graduation.

"I was watching a football game the other night and the names of troops from Maryland starting running across the TV screen," Fabri said. "Oh, I cry each and every time. That's all you can do."

Maryland, with 18 deaths, has not experienced as high a toll as some larger states. As of Monday, California had suffered 146 casualties, Pennsylvania, 61, and Illinois, 53.

Since Spry's death, Fabri and other family members in rural Kent County have busied themselves creating a foundation in his name, dedicated to raising money for soldiers in the Middle East and their families back home.

So far, Fabri says, they've sold nearly 10,000 yellow "Support Our Troops" stickers, using the money to buy phone cards for those away from home, and providing financial support for their families and for the families of wounded soldiers recuperating in military hospitals.

One of the first casualties of the Iraq war was Waters-Bey, a 29-year-old Marine from Northwest Baltimore. In the months since his death, his father has been unrelenting in his criticism of the war.

Tia Steele of Govans says Branning, her stepson, was raised by pacifist parents in the Cockeysville area. His father, Daniel C. Branning, opposed the war but supported his son, who "knew what his path needed to be," Steele said.

"Our lives are changed forever, both because he lived and because he died," she said. "That's not going to be for nothing."

Fabri, who had a premonition about her son's death, says she still needs sleeping pills. Despite her loss, she remains staunchly supportive of the war and of President Bush. This week, she spoke to a local Republican women's group.

"You have to support the life your children choose, and Nick wanted to be a soldier," Fabri said. "It was his wish to serve in the military. He was proud of what he had done, and we are very proud of him."

Army Spc. Michael Wigglesworth Jr. is the first to admit that he is one of the lucky ones. Along with the other truck drivers and mechanics of the 1229th Transportation Company, the 36-year-old correctional officer marched out of his Eastern Shore hometown of Crisfield, and he and every member of his Maryland National Guard unit returned from Iraq to a hero's welcome.

With three more years remaining on his service in the Guard, Wigglesworth is not likely to re-enlist. Still, when he hears of any casualty, he takes it personally. The war, Wigglesworth says, is "something that's got to be done."

"Whenever we lose somebody, it's like losing one of our own," he said. "But I have two young kids, and I feel like I've done my part. When this contract is up, I'll definitely re-evaluate."

Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Rantz, 34, a Maryland National Guardsman with the 115th Military Police Battalion, decided that the Army needed his experience. Rantz and his unit were called to active duty at the Pentagon and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq.

After an emotional homecoming last Christmas, Rantz, who in civilian life is a Wicomico County deputy sheriff, re-enlisted.

"I told him I'd support him either way," said his wife, Cheryl, a lieutenant in the Salisbury Police Department. "He just felt this was the right thing to do.

"There is more to do over there," she said. "His part is to do what is asked of him and to trust in God."