Politics & Government

Family of Fallen Soldier: My Son's Task Was Completed

Carol and Michael Ewens, whose son was killed while serving in Afghanistan, share their reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden.

"Forrest, we did it."

Carol Ewens posted those four words on her Facebook page Sunday night after learning that .

The Gig Harbor resident said it took her a while to let the reality sink in.

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She and her husband, Michael, lost their son, Army 1st Lt. Forrest Pinkerton Ewens, 25, in 2006. He died in the Pech River Valley in Afghanistan when his company's vehicle struck an IED during combat operations. 

Even though his deployment was slated for 18 months, Forrest was killed just four months after he set foot in Afghanistan.

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"I wish I could tell him," she said. "He was over there in that area right on the border of  Pakistan and Afghanistan."

Carol said she's happy that the al-Qaida leader is dead. After watching President Obama's televised address to the nation, she said her reaction wasn't angry or vengeful.

"I guess it was more of a peaceful, justice feeling for me," she said.

At first, Michael said, he didn't have a response at all. "I was pretty skeptical and numb," he said. "It doesn't feel like a closure, but it is part of the mission that the country started 10 years ago."

The Ewens said their son was assigned to one of the "hotter areas."

"None of the guys knew it was going to be the way it was when they went over," Carol said. "A lot of them had served in Iraq and thought it would be a breeze going into Afghanistan. But it was totally opposite."

"If we put kids in that kind of risk, we'd better be alongside as a nation, and I don't feel like we have (been)," Michael said. He criticized the country for letting the war drag on for 10 years, and he felt that with other crises around the world, the soldiers' daily sacrifices went unnoticed.

"While so many lives are at stake, people forget what's going on overseas and the wellbeing of the nation," he said.

In the decade since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 126 members of the armed forces from Washington state have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 1,099 have been wounded in action as of April 25, according to the Department of Defense.

After Forrest's death, Carol said her family was in "survival mode" with their other three sons also deployed in Afghanistan.

Forrest's twin brother, Oaken, 30, is still an active member in the military at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Roughly 1,000 troops from the base are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan currently, said base spokesman Joseph Piek. Carol expects Oaken to be deployed sometime next year.

Stephen, 26, joined the Army a month after Forrest's death and returned from Afghanistan last July. Carol said he and Elisha, 27, have been flirting with the idea of going back in the Army. 

Carol and Michael remember Forrest's love of developing personal relationships with the locals. In his letters home, he wrote about humanitarian missions and helping out the people in the war-stricken country.

"He would write about this young boy who had a high fever, and they gave him an aspirin or Tylenol and built this relationship with his father that lasted for months. The father would bring food down to everybody," she said. "Forrest was known by his men (as) that kind of a leader that would make sure his men were taken care of first. We're really proud of that because we taught him to be a good leader, and you have to be willing to sacrifice for others."

Despite bin Laden's death, Carol said it doesn't bring her closure about her son's death.

"It's never going to be a closure for me that I lost my son, but it makes me feel like my son's task was completed."


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