http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3636969,00.htmlFrom Nearly Every State, Death in Iraq
Saturday January 17, 2004 8:46 PM
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) - Sandra Puello is strong for her children. But when they're at school and she's alone in her big new house in the Poconos, she inevitably thinks about her husband, and breaks down. Six months ago, Army Sgt. Jaror C. Puello-Coronado, a military policeman, was guarding a base in southern Iraq when an out-of-control dump truck hit and killed him. He is one of 28 from Pennsylvania who have died in the war with Iraq, where the U.S. death toll reached 500 Saturday.
It is the largest number of American military casualties in a single conflict since Vietnam. "We are losing all these lives, for what?" Puello says. "They bring back soldiers in body bags and what do you get from the government, the president? 'I'm sorry.' That's not going to bring him back."
The dead hailed from every state except Alaska, and also came from Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and American Samoa. But Puello-Coronado's adopted state, Pennsylvania, has paid an especially steep price. Only California and Texas, the two most populous states, have lost more men and women in Iraq than Pennsylvania, which ranks sixth in population. <snip>
Others were killed in combat during the early stages of the war, others by Iraqi insurgents after Saddam Hussein's regime crumbled. More than 150 deaths were accidental, including an Army captain who was electrocuted; illness and disease claimed others. More than 20 committed suicide. <snip>