After son's death, man remains in public eye

The minister became outspoken once he learned the details of his son's death.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The father of a soldier killed when his convoy was ambushed after taking a wrong turn has emerged as one of the most vocal of the U.S. parents who have lost sons and daughters in Iraq.
The Rev. Tandy Sloan has become a familiar figure in Cleveland and has sent terse statements to news outlets labeling the fate of his son's unit as a "preposterous" tragedy.
Despite his outspokenness, the Rev. Mr. Sloan generally keeps his pain private about the death of 19-year-old Army Pfc. Brandon U. Sloan in the March 2003 ambush of the 507th Maintenance Company.
Almost two months after Brandon's funeral, the family was told that an exhausted commander of 507th led his convoy down the wrong route in the desert, and into a battle that left Brandon and 10 others dead.
"I became outspoken on politics the day Brig. Gen. Harold Bromberg told me my son was left behind," Mr. Sloan said recently.
Brandon, of suburban Bedford Heights, came home in a sealed coffin. His father was told the body was unviewable.
Seven others from the unit survived the ambush, including rescued Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
Learned of situation
Mr. Sloan was told of logistical problems that doomed his son's unit -- navigational errors, heavy vehicles that bogged down in the sand, jammed guns, inadequate radios.
After about an hour of "being inundated with unacceptable information," Mr. Sloan walked out of the meeting.
"I was appalled," he said. "I could not believe they would have my son in such a predicament."
Army public affairs officers referred calls to the officials who investigated the ambush in Kuwait. Calls to those officials went unanswered Monday.
Many people told Mr. Sloan's niece, Deborah Sample, that they expected to see more emotion from him about his son's funeral.
"He's very aware of image, and representing Christ. He's not going to shout his feelings from a mountaintop," Sample said.
"It was a personal thing between him and his son, and him and his God."
The only time Sample remembers Mr. Sloan crying during the past year is when the Bedford School District awarded his son a posthumous diploma.
"He broke down when he heard about it," she said.
Official's comments
Mr. Sloan's congresswoman, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, has gotten to know him in the last year and says it is uncomfortable for him to stay in the public eye with a message he feels obliged to deliver. He is not a showy man, Tubbs Jones said.
Last month, Mr. Sloan spoke at a downtown Cleveland rally to protest the closing of the Brecksville VA Medical Center, where he openly criticized the Bush administration for cutting services while new veterans are coming home.
The national press flocked to Mr. Sloan's Cleveland church to cover the funeral for Brandon, one of the war's first casualties.
One press report that Mr. Sloan was heartened by was an interview with Spc. Shoshana Johnson, one of the ambush survivors, in the May issue of Glamour magazine. Johnson said in the article that an encounter with Mr. Sloan was a personal turning point.
The two had met at Congressional Black Caucus dinner in Washington, D.C., that Tubbs Jones invited Mr. Sloan to attend.
On meeting Johnson
"She was so tearful and shaken and sorrowful. It seemed to me that she was overwhelmed by guilt at being a survivor," Mr. Sloan recalled.
Together, they ignored the glitzy event and had a few minutes of church.
"I just told her, I said basically, you have to go on with your life. You don't have anything to apologize for. You've done your duty. Brandon, as your friend, would have wanted you to go on. I told her she could be a great benefit to mankind by her example."
Mr. Sloan, a minister with little formal training, followed the lead of his father, a Baptist pastor, and preached his first sermon in 1990.
For Mr. Sloan, it was a great comfort to know his faith in God is finally what's prompting the news coverage.
"I tried to be an effective witness to her," he said. "My intention was that she see God."