Shi...oot! Anti-war soldier killed in Iraq. We have got to get them out

Family of fallen US soldier divided over military funeral honors

CHICAGO (AFP) - A US helicopter pilot who died in a deadly ambush in Iraq last week will be buried in a church graveyard without military honors at the request of his mother.

Rosemarie Dietz Slavenas refused to use a casket provided by the military and asked that her son's coffin not be draped with a US flag in a decision that has created something of a family rift, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Dietz Slavenas told the Tribune that her son had tried to resign his commission rather than go to Iraq, but the military had blocked his resignation.

"They did not honor his resignation," she said. "If they had honored him when he resigned, he would still be with me today. And that's the most important thing to me today. That's unspeakably difficult."

As executor of her son's will, Dietz Slavenas, an anti-war activist, had the final say over arrangements.

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