Gov. Mitt Romney, who has pledged to return home for important occasions and prided himself on attending the funerals of Massachusetts servicemen killed overseas, skipped the funeral of an Malden Marine on Friday to campaign in South Carolina and Michigan.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Republican said Romney instead called the widow of Lance Cpl. Edward M. Garvin, a 19-year-old who was killed Oct. 4 in combat operations in Iraq’s al Anbar province. Romney is considering a run for president in 2008, and the two states he visited Friday are early in the primary calendar….

Since the beginning of October, Romney has been in Massachusetts all or part of six days. And even when he has been in town, his events have had a national patina….
All told, Romney has been in Massachusetts all or part of 12 days since Sept. 11…. The trend will continue next week, when Romney plans to visit Utah and California.

http://bluemassgroup.com/2006/10/romney-skips-marines-funeral-to-campaign-out-of-state/

Ann Romney replied:

He was serving his mission. My five sons have also served their mission. None served in the military. None served in the military, but I do have one son that feels that he’s giving back to his country in a significant way where he is now a doctor, and he is taking care of veterans. So we find different ways of serving, and my five boys and my husband did serve missions, and did not serve in the military.

“I sent them away boys, and they came back men,” she added.

“So when you’re facing these mothers whose children have not come back, how will you explain to them that your sons haven’t gone?” Goldberg asked further.

“I think it’s the hardest thing that a president will probably do,” she said. She added that her husband, during his time as governor, “went to every funeral of a returning veteran” and “it was the hardest thing Mitt had to do.”

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/whoopi-presses-ann-romney-on-sons-lack-of-military-service-does-mormonism-not-allow-it/