Victims of a deeper war

This week, five U.S. troops in Iraq were shot and killed in what military officials are calling the worst case of soldier-on-soldier violence since the war began. Sgt. John M. Russell, 44, has been charged with five counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault. Authorities say he opened fire Monday in a combat stress clinic at Camp Liberty in Baghdad. A military official said a day later that Russell had recently had his weapon taken away because of concerns about his behavior. The five men killed represented a wide variety of experience and backgrounds. The oldest was 54, the youngest 19. Three were married, two single. They left behind a total of nine children. Two served on the clinic’s medical staff.

Jacob D.

Barton

Age: 20

Branch: Army Reserve

Rank: Specialist

Based: Waco, Texas, 277th Engineer Company, 420th Engineer Brigade

Personal: Single

Hometown: Lenox, Mo.

Barton, who loved graphic novels and science fiction, enlisted in the Army Reserve shortly after graduating in 2008 from Rolla High School, where teachers described him as a quiet student who nevertheless stood up for others who were bullied.

“He would always come tell me he had to leave early to make sure his grandma had wood and food,” Rolla High Assistant Principal Bonnie Brainard told the Associated Press, speaking of Barton’s concern for his grandmother during poor weather. “He was always trying to be the man of the house, especially after his mother died.”

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Christian E.

Bueno-Galdos

Age: 25

Branch: Army

Rank: Staff sergeant

Based: U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, Germany, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade

Personal: Married, no children

Hometown: Paterson, N.J.

Born in Peru, Bueno-Galdos was 7 years old when his family immigrated to the United States. He became a U.S. citizen while he was serving his second tour in Iraq with the Army.

“If my son had died in war, we would be able to handle that,” said his father, Carlos Bueno. “But not to die in this manner.”

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Dr. Matthew

P. Houseal

Age: 54

Branch: Army Reserve

Rank: Major

Based: 55th Medical Company, Indianapolis

Personal: Married, with six children

Hometown: Amarillo, Texas

“He was a very fine doctor that was always doing everything he could to help those who had a mental disorder,” Arthur Ware, a judge in Potter County, Texas, told the Amarillo Globe-News.

“Somebody ended not only his life, but ends that ability for him to help the people that help others with mental disorders.”

Houseal had worked as a psychiatrist at Texas Panhandle Mental Health Mental Retardation since 1997. He was inspired to join the military in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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Charles ‘Keith’ Springle

Age: 52

Branch: Navy

Rank: Commander

Based: Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he served as director of the Community Counseling Center

Personal: Married, with two children

Hometown: Wilmington, N.C.

Springle, who joined the Navy in 1988, trained as a social worker and devoted his career to treating soldiers for combat stress.

“He regarded it as very important work,” his friend Bob Goodale told the Associated Press.

“We all who work in this know that it is difficult,” said Goodale, director of behavioral mental health for the Citizen-Soldier Support Program in Chapel Hill, N.C. “This is an example of how difficult.”

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Michael E. Yates Jr.

Age: 19

Branch: Army

Rank: Private first class

Based: U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr, Germany, 3rd Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade

Personal: Single, 1-year-old son

Hometown: Federalsburg, Md.

“He was one of the lucky ones that understood that he needed help,” his stepfather, Richard Van Blargan Jr., told CNN.

Yates, who was serving his first tour of duty, joined the Army because he didn’t have many other alternatives, his mother, Shawna Machlinski, told the Associated Press. She said he was receiving treatment at the clinic because he was having trouble adjusting to life in Iraq after a monthlong trip home in April, and she expressed both sympathy for and anger at her son’s killer.

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Source: DeeDee Correll for The Times