The Best Phone Call of All

A Kansas family was still reeling hours after receiving word that the SON WHO HAD BEEN REPORTED KILLED ON WEDNESDAY WAS IN FACT ALIVE. Early Saturday, the Army said it had made a mistake in listing Pfc. Clayton Carpenter, 20, dead from injuries just two hours before Gulf War hostilities were suspended. On Friday, Ruth Dillow had been grieving when suddenly, her son phoned. “I was afraid somebody was playing with my mind. . . . I asked him questions only he would know the answer to.” She said the same two officers who had notified her of her son’s death arrived soon after to confirm he was alive, just slightly wounded. Earlier, Carpenter had written to a local newspaper: “The time I will be gone defending my country, I will miss this great land I call home.”