http://wcco.com/localnews/local_story_218072505.htmlArdmore Native Was Preparing To Return Home
POSTED: 9:26 am CDT August 23, 2004
UPDATED: 9:40 am CDT August 23, 2004
OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma Marine who was scheduled to come home next month was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy in Iraq, his mother said Sunday.
Pvt. Nachez Washalanta II died from massive trauma to his lower body, according to his mother, Carol Caldwell. He was one of four Marines killed Saturday in Iraq.
Washalanta, 21, had been in the country since February, serving his second tour of duty there.
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"The night he got on the plane back in February, I just told him to be careful, and I loved him and to get back home as safe as he could," Caldwell said. "We'd already been through it once so it wasn't quite as hard, but now it's even harder.
"... I wish they could end this mess, it's gone overboard now. I think they've got what they wanted, and they're just dragging it out into a mess now."