Troops’ Families Worry and Wait

The families of two soldiers missing in Iraq after an insurgent attack last week could do little but wait and worry Monday as the military continued a massive search for the pair.

Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., have been listed as “whereabouts unknown” by the Army. Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed in the attack.

In a statement posted on the Internet on Monday, an Al Qaeda in Iraq-linked insurgent coalition claimed to have abducted the missing soldiers. The message’s authenticity could not be verified, and no proof of kidnapping was offered.

“We haven’t heard anything more from the Army about what’s happening. We’re just watching the news and waiting,” said Josie Hernandez, a cousin of Menchaca’s wife, Christina. The soldier’s 18-year-old spouse is living at Hernandez’s home in the West Texas town of Big Spring. “She’s not ready right now to say anything. She just wants everybody to pray,” Hernandez said.

Menchaca visited his mother in Brownsville, Texas, while on leave last month, said his aunt, Maria Dolores Vasquez. He looked tired and melancholy, she said, but playing basketball with his brother seemed to cheer him up. “He wanted to play rather than eat, and told us he would eat with us after he played with his brother,” Vasquez said.

Hours before learning that Menchaca was missing, his grandmother was hospitalized with heart problems. It was a hard day on his mother, who prays that her son will be safe, Vasquez said. “We’re still trying to understand what happened.”

In Tucker’s rural Oregon hometown of Madras, population 5,146, yellow ribbons have been tied around trees and mailboxes. Wesley and Margaret Tucker said in a statement that their son had left a job as a construction worker to join the Army because he “wanted to do something positive.”

He recently left a phone message that’s still on the family’s answering machine: “Be proud of me, Mom, I’m defending my country. Tell Sis and my nephews hello for me, I’m OK, I’m on my way,” he said.

Babineau, who died in Friday’s attack, joined the military out of high school and wanted to make a career in the Army, his mother, Dawn, told the Associated Press. He leaves behind a wife, two sons ages 2 and 4, and an 8-year-old daughter.

All three soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division based at Ft. Campbell, a sprawling Army base that straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

Hart reported from Houston and Marshall from Seattle. Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo in Houston contributed to this report.