Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Death Memorial


Col. Theodore S. Westhusing 44, A U.S. Military Academy professor serving with the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq Dallas, Texas Died of non-combat related injuries in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 5, 2005.

6/1/2005. COLONEL TED WESTHUSING 44 BIAP, IRAQ GUNSHOT
I am Sullied-No More. Faced with the Iraq war’s corruption, Col. Ted Westhusing chose death before dishonor by Robert Bryce Ted Westhusing was a true believer. And that was his fatal flaw. A colonel in the U.S. Army, Westhusing had a good job teaching English at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was a devout Catholic who went to church nearly every Sunday. He had a wife and three young children. He didn’t have to go to Iraq. But Westhusing was such a believer that he volunteered for what he thought was a noble cause. At West Point, Westhusing sought out people who opposed the war in an effort to change their minds. “He absolutely believed that this was a just war,” said one officer who was close to him. “He was wholly enthusiastic about this mission.” His tour of duty in Iraq was to last six months. About a month before he was to return to his family—on June 5, 2005—Westhusing was found dead in his trailer at Camp Dublin in Baghdad. At the time, he was the highest-ranking American soldier to die in Iraq. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command report on Westhusing’s death explained it as a “perforating gunshot wound of the head and Manner of Death was suicide.” He was 44.

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