The Detroit Free Press is maintaining a link to the AP’s database of the casualties in Iraq, searchable by name or home state (US)/region(UK). I opposed the war from the beginning because I did not believe it would make us any safer and because I knew it would bring us many stories like this:
Sgt. Michael E. Bitz was a father of four especially eager to see his youngest children, twins born a month after he was sent overseas. Bitz joined the Marines in 1995 at the urging of his mother, who said her son drifted from job to job after graduating from Hueneme High School. “He loved the service. He found direction and purpose in his life,” Donna Bellman said. His wife, Janina, gave birth to twins just weeks after her husband received his orders. He had two other children, ages 2 and 7. “I had this terrible feeling since he shipped out in January,” Bellman said. “I kept trying to picture a white bubble around him to keep him safe. But it didn’t work.”
