BAGHDAD, Aug. 23, 2007
Family Loses Second Son In Iraq
Third Son In Iraq Will Return To California For The Funeral
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Play CBS Video Video Family's Second Loss In Iraq A California family has lost a second son to the Iraq war in the helicopter crash that killed 14 soldiers. Their third son must decide whether to stay in Iraq or come home. Kimberly Dozier reports.
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Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq. (CBS)
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Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, right, was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq in August of 2007. He is pictured here with his brother Jason Hubbard. (CBS)
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Timeline Iraq Copter Crashes Some of the deadliest helicopter crashes in Iraq and Kuwait since the start of the war.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
The family of Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, was taking his death on Wednesday "very, very hard," said Clovis police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee, who spoke on behalf of the Hubbards. The soldier's father, Jeff Hubbard, is a retired 30-year veteran of the police department.
Hubbard’s UH-60 helicopter went down during a nighttime mission in the Tamim province that surrounds Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a military spokesman in northern Iraq.
He said facts gathered indicated it was almost certainly due to a mechanical problem and not hostile fire, although the final cause remained under investigation. The military did not immediately release the soldiers' identities pending notification of relatives.
Nathan Hubbard was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, where officials said 10 of the soldiers killed in the crash were based.
The Hubbards lost Nathan's older brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, to a roadside bomb in downtown Ramadi in 2004.
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that after Jared died, Nathan, along with his younger brother Jason, decided to fight back. They joined the Army, completing basic training at Fort Benning, and together, deployed to Iraq.
"These were aggressively committed young men, to their friends, their family, whatever sports activity or event that they were participating in," says local clergy member Rev. Tim Rolen of New Hope Community Church.
Their mother, Peggy, told the Fresno Bee in a 2005 interview that she believed Jason joined in part to protect Nathan after not being there to help Jared.
The brothers said at the time that they didn't worry about dying in the war.
"People are going to be hurt, and people are going to be killed," Nathan Hubbard told the Bee. "That is a reality you have to accept, but not dwell on."
Jason has left his unit in Iraq, to join his family in California at this difficult time, reports Dozier.
Army officials tell CBS News that in a case like this, no branch of the U.S. military will force family members to fight on.
So now, when the funeral is over, Jason will have to face the choice of how to best honor his brothers' sacrifice and his family's loss: go back to Iraq or stay home.
Keith Butterfield, a family friend, said the Hubbards were worried for their sons but proud because they knew they were committed to going on behalf of their fallen brother.
"There is nothing anyone can say to make it better, but it's good to know that there are other families that can help you cope," said Butterfield, who became close to the Hubbards after his own son died in Iraq last year. "It's bringing up the feelings of everyone else's loss, but we will be there for them."
The tragedy has echoes of another sorrow, from World War II - the combat deaths of the five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, killed when the Navy ship on which they served was sunk in November 1942.
Their story was told in the 1944 movie "The Sullivans" and was an inspiration for the fictional tale that unfolds in the 1998 film "Saving Private Ryan."
Two destroyers were named The Sullivans in memory of the five brothers. The most recent ship, commissioned in 1997 as part of the Atlantic fleet, has the motto: "We stick together."
In other developments:
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 109 CommentsPosted by themurph2000 at 08:53 AM : Aug 24, 2007"
If a criminal confronts a police with a weapon and the police, with his own gun, bested the criminal, would that be two mistakes?
Withdrawing from Iraq may well be a bit nasty AT FIRST; but to enter and remain is EVEN NASTIER!
The same childish doubt surfaced with Vietnam; and look what happen: Reality was that the VIOLENCE WAS BEING FUELED BY THE HATED US PRESENCE!
Posted by downtowner97 at 03:25 AM : Aug 24, 2007
Enough with the prejudiced cr/ap and get back on topic.
Here''s the one thing I haven''t seen anyone address yet. If we withdraw our troops from Iraq, what happens next? I''d like to see the troops get home fast like everyone else, but what kind of Iraq will be left behind when we leave? If it remains in the middle of civil war (which is part of the problem right now), will other countries or Al-Qaeda take advantage of it? If that happens, we''ll have left ourselves in a situation far worse than if Hussein was still in power. Nobody questions us going into Afghanistan to take out the Taliban after 9/11 (nor should we question that), but was that 100% successful? Last I checked, both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan were still there and gaining in strength.
Whether you support the war or not, you can easily accuse the Bush admin of not thinking ahead far enough to have a viable plan in post-Hussein Iraq. But if we pull the troops from Iraq too early, won''t we be making the same mistake twice?
Posted by mcdazz at 02:37 AM : Aug 24, 2007,,,
9/11 was an embarrassing lapse in U.S. Airport Security and technically should never have been successful. Airports should learn security from U.S. Casinos! Think about it, no U.S. Casino has ever been successfully robbed, ever! It''s amazing actually, there is money everywhere, all in your face, you can reach out and touch it it''s so close! Yet you see no security anywhere, it looks like easy pickings, but you know and they know you better not even think about it! Airports need security like that! LOL
"An investigating officer recommended Thursday dismissing all charges against a Marine accused of murdering two girls in an assault that killed 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha. Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 26, is charged with unpremeditated murder of two girls and negligent homicide on suspicion that he unlawfully killed two men, a woman and a boy. He is also accused of assaulting another boy and a girl. Investigating officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware said the evidence was too weak for a court-martial. Tatum shot and killed civilians, but "he did so because of his training and the circumstances he was placed in, not to exact revenge and commit murder," Ware wrote."
Imagine if the same rule applied to an army that had killed American civilians.
Or if we applied the same rule to those sick ba$tards who were involved in 9/11?
My condolences to the family as well.
Posted by jh6379 at 09:37 AM : Aug 23, 2007
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Not every soldier getting killed in this war is male.
Posted by JDUBS63
Yes, and for the 50,000 other families whose sons didn''t come home from Vietnam, not to mention the 3K+ whose sons and daughters haven''t come home from Iraq, not to mention the 50K whose sons and daughters have come home maimed and damaged from Iraq, and for the 2 million Vietnamese who didn''t live to enjoy their old age, and the 250,000 Iraqis whose guts were sprayed all over the street.
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill
One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
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