IT WAS LATE LAST MONTH that Joseph Anzack's family was told that he had been killed in Iraq. It had started as a rumor, and led to farewell postings on MySpace and even a banner at the high school in honor of the 20 year-old former football star.
The panicked family called the Army, and the Army honorably went so far as to arrange a call home for Pfc. Anzack. Maybe in the need to grasp at the nearest thing to being together again, he and his dad made plans...
"We talked about him coming back on leave that was not going to materialize until about New Year’s and going to Vegas and just getting caught up and just living life," his dad said.
Then, just three weeks later, Joseph Anzack's family got the news: he was one of the soldiers missing following an attack in Mahmudiyah that left little but the charred remains of five of his comrades.
Today a body was found floating in the Euphrates. A body clad partially in an American uniform.
And also today, his family got the news. It was the body of Joseph Anzack, killed in Iraq.
This time for real.
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This diary by Spread the Word: Iraq-Nam, a daily blog on Iraq.