Pa. family endures pain in death of soldier, mother

The family was planning a double funeral for the soldier and his mother.
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
DARLINGTON, Pa. -- Relatives of a 33-year-old Army sergeant from this community are struggling to cope with his death as he headed home from Iraq for his mother's funeral here.
Sgt. Ernest G. Bucklew was among the 16 U.S. soldiers killed Sunday in an attack on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq. He had been expected to stop at his Fort Carson, Colo., home before traveling to the funeral. His wife, Barbara, wept as she spoke of breaking the news to the couple's two children, 8-year-old Joshua and 4-year-old Justin.
"My oldest one is just a little numb," she said at the Army post near Colorado Springs, shrouded in fog and a cold rain. "He understands his nana and father passed away, but he hasn't talked about it. The youngest one just doesn't understand. He doesn't understand the concept of death right now."
Tragic blow to base
The attack was an especially tragic blow at Fort Carson, where Bucklew was assigned to the Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. The base has sent 12,000 troops to Iraq -- its largest deployment since World War II. In all, 25 soldiers from the post have died in Iraq -- four of them in Sunday's crash.
Many of the victims had been headed home for R & amp;R or emergency leave when they were killed.
"When my husband gets here, I just want to hug and kiss him and never let him go," said Army wife Amy Leyenbecker, who was at the Bucklew home trying to provide comfort.
Two funerals
Bucklew's family was planning two funerals -- one for him and another for his mother, Mary Ellen Bucklew, 57, who died Friday of a burst aneurysm.
"It's going to be a double service. They are going to have it all at one time," said Jack D. Smith Jr., the soldier's cousin. "It'll be later in the week, depending on how fast they can get the body home."
"They say there's a reason for everything, but I just can't find a reason for this," said Bucklew's uncle, Jack Smith of Point Marion, Pa. "This country shouldn't be starting wars; we should be defending ourselves and others. I think all these boys should be sent home."
"I think it was more of a shock when you go through the Red Cross and he writes you that he's coming home and then a bunch of damn cowards shoot him down," he said.
"His last words were, 'I'm coming home,'" Smith Sr. added. "He said, 'I'm not worried, because my mom's up there watching over me.'"
Bucklew, the son of a coal miner, grew up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia and joined the National Guard. He met his wife in 1991, when both were in the Army Reserves.