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Losses Color a Patriotic Town's View of the Iraq War
An 82nd Airborne Division honor guard carries the casket of Pfc. Stephen Bicknell into First United Methodist in Prattville as family members follow at right. Bicknell died in Iraq Oct. 15.
(By Lloyd Gallman -- Montgomery Advertiser Via Associated Press)
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The homicide rate in the United States was 5.5 people per 100,000 population, according the Bureau of Justice Statistics, far lower than the mortality rate among American troops in Iraq.
The Prattville recruits said they wanted to "see the world," or gain college tuition money, or said they simply wanted to serve their country, a devotion they considered a quintessential "Southern thing."
"They say about 40 percent of Americans support the war, and I'd say a good 30 to 35 percent of that live in the South," said William Reed, a Prattville High student entering the Marines. "People here are brought up to love their country."
Cean Sims, 17, described himself as something of a class clown.
"You know how they say that thing about 'the few, the proud, the Marines'?" he asked. "I want to prove it to myself that I can do it. More than that, I want to prove it to other people. Throughout my life, I've been underestimated and discouraged."
While he was certain of his motivation, however, he seemed mystified by the politics of the war.
"We've been over there keeping the peace. But the Iraqis don't seem to see what we're trying to do," he said.
The deaths of the two Prattville soldiers were a constant point of reference for the recruits. Army Sgt. Carlos Pernell, 25, died June 6 after a mortar attack on his base. Then Pfc. Stephen Bicknell, the former quarterback, died Oct. 15 after the Humvee he was in struck a land mine.
He is survived by his wife and high school classmate, Miranda, 18, who is five months pregnant.
"I'm here . . . I'm in the combat zone," Bicknell wrote in his last posting on MySpace. "It's not really combat though when ur people r the only ones gettin killed . . . we already took 6 casualties in the area and 2 deaths . . . they died or got injured by IEDs . . . they suck!"
Bicknell originally left Prattville to attend the University of West Alabama on a scholarship, his mother said, but then he dropped out after becoming disillusioned with its football program. To the surprise of his family, he enlisted.
"Being a mom, I cried," said Linda Bicknell, the owner of a beauty salon in town. "I said, 'Why? Why now? There's a war going on.' " She said her son was not the type to question. "Stephen is one of those kids who you can tell what to do, where to go, how to do it, and he just does it."
She added: "I can't say I'm either for the war or against the war. I just know we're in deep, and we better finish the job."
Otherwise, she said, would be to risk having sacrificed "all those lives in vain."
