July 20, 2006
First Cape soldier killed in Iraq
By ROBIN LORD and JASON KOLNOS
STAFF WRITERS
EASTHAM - Cynthia DesLauriers and her daughter, Lori Vecchione, were sitting on their deck in the evening breeze Tuesday when a government car pulled up to the house.
At first, DesLauriers, who is a front desk clerk at the Eastham Post Office, thought it was someone from the U.S. Postal Service.
Army Sgt. Mark Vecchione is pictured earlier this month on the Cape with sister Lori and her son, Sebastian, and his mom, Cynthia DesLauriers. Vecchione, who had a deep love for his family, was killed Tuesday when the tank he was riding in was struck by an "improvised explosive device," or IED.
But, when men in military uniforms stepped out, DesLauriers knew her worst fears had been realized.
''They didn't even have to say anything. I just said, 'No, no, no, it's not happening,' '' she said yesterday, a little more than 12 hours after she learned her only son and youngest child, Mark Vecchione, 25, had been killed in Iraq.
The Army sergeant, who had written on his personal
myspace.com Web page that ''getting home alive'' was his
No. 1 goal this year, died Tuesday somewhere in Iraq.
He was killed when the tank he was riding in ran over an ''improvised explosive device'' or IED. As the head gunner in the tank, he may have been riding halfway out of the vehicle when it was hit, according to what an Army official told his mother.
The Army official did not reveal the exact location of his death or his body to DesLauriers, or any other details surrounding his death, pending an investigation and report, she said.
Vecchione died exactly two weeks after he had returned to Iraq from a short leave with his family in Eastham.
He was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, which was due to end in six months.
Although Vecchione moved to Tucson, Ariz., when he was a junior in high school to live with his now deceased father, Guy Vecchione, he is the first person who was born and raised on Cape Cod to die in the war that began more than three years ago.
''If you were going to go to war, you'd want to go with him,'' said Al Cestaro, a retired sergeant in the Army's 501st Airborne Division, who has known Vecchione since kindergarten in Eastham.
Cestaro called his friend ''selfless and kind.'' As an Army sergeant, he said Vecchione had ''an undying dedication to his soldiers.''
Vecchione was honored to be serving his country, Cestaro said.
''We all knew as soldiers the price of freedom is you have to see your friends die, or you die. But he didn't want to die any other way than knowing he was protecting his family.''
When Vecchione re-enlisted after his first tour of duty, Cestaro said he asked him why he wanted to go back to the dangers and the horrors of war. He said Vecchione told him he didn't want to let his comrades down.
There are about 132,000 U.S. troops serving in Iraq. As of 10 a.m. yesterday, 2,554 soldiers have been killed and about 19,000 injured.
''Very brave, smart''
Another friend from childhood, Vicki Fulcher of South Yarmouth, called the Army Vecchione's ''passion.'' Both Cestaro and Fulcher partied with Vecchione when he was home earlier this month, stopping at one of his favorite places, the Land Ho in Orleans, and enjoying cookouts.
The weapon that killed Vecchione
Improvised Explosive Device, called an IED, sometimes referred to as "roadside bomb"
What it is: An IED is a "homemade" device that is designed to cause death or injury by using explosives alone or in combination with toxic chemicals, biological toxins, or radiological material. They are used by Iraqi insurgency to target American and coalition targets.
IEDs can be produced in varying sizes, functioning methods, containers, and delivery methods.
IEDs utilize commercial or military explosives, homemade explosives, or military ordnance and ordnance components.
They are placed to avoid detection and some may involve remote or command detonation.
IEDs usually combine the effects of blast, fragmentation as well as armor penetration, through the use of shaped charge liners.
Three types of IED:
Package Type IED
Vehicle-Borne IED (VBIED) - car or truck bomb
Suicide Bomb IED
Employment techniques:
Coupling: A method of linking one mine or explosive device to another, usually with detonating cord.
Rolling: To pass over the initial, unfuzed device and set off the second fuzed device. This in turn detonates the overpassed device underneath the clearing vehicle.
Boosting: Buried mines, UXOs (unexploded ordnance), or other explosive devices are stacked on top of one another. The device buried deepest from the surface is fuzed.
Sensitizing antitank (AT) mines: On some nonmetallic AT mines, the pressure plate is cracked and the spring is removed to reduce the pressure required to initiate the mine.
Daisy chaining: AP (anti-personnel) mines may be used in daisy chains linked with other explosive hazards. When the initial mine is detonated, the other mines may detonate.
Sources: www.globalsecurity.org, and www.defense-update.com.
To his sister, Lori, Vecchione was her best friend. He was ''very brave, smart, with a heart of gold and nerves of steel,'' she said. And he was also a hero to her five-year-old son, Sebastian.
To his mother, he was ''just my little boy who was always watching out for us.''
With tears welling in her eyes frequently and her face etched with the numbness and weariness that only sudden grief can bring, DesLauriers said her son was ''very proud'' to be serving in Iraq, but ''was afraid at times'' of the dangers.
A glance at Vecchione's
myspace.com Web page reveals a man with a deep love for his family, especially his nephew Sebastian. He called his late father, who died last year, his hero.
He listed spiders as his greatest fear, but posted several pictures of himself holding a 5-foot machine gun in Iraq.
And he joked that the club he belonged to while attending Sahuaro High School in Tucson was the ''Reserved Seat In the Principal's Office Club.'' He regrets most not doing a better job while in school. A Catholic man who wanted to be a pilot when he grew up, he said his greatest weakness was ''seeing little kids upset.''
When Vecchione left the Cape to live with his father in Tucson, he befriended Travis Wilson and his sister Bambi Anaya.
''He was the kind of person you could talk to about anything,'' said Anaya, 27, reached at her Arizona home yesterday. ''He was that spot of sunshine in all of our lives.''
Wilson, 26, an Army sergeant currently stationed in Fort Knox, Ky., called Vecchione ''the greatest human being I have ever met and I'm honored to have had my life touched by him.''
Joined Army in 2001
It was in July of 2001 when Vecchione, Wilson and another friend all decided to join the Army. Wilson said in addition to seeing it as a way to help his country, Vecchione saw the military as an avenue for personal growth before someday going to college.
At the Eastham Post Office on Route 6 yesterday morning, patrons were halted in their tracks at the door, where acting Postmaster Donald Rogers had posted a notice of Vecchione's death.
''It's a small community where everybody knows everybody,'' he said.
Recent photos of Vecchione in his uniform and with Sebastian are tacked up on the wall at the desk, as well as on the computer his mother uses. Customers often asked DesLauriers how he was doing, said postal clerk Mark Godfrey.
''I got the impression she got a lot of comfort from that,'' he said. In addition to his mother, sister and nephew, Vecchione is survived by an uncle, Donald Vecchione of East Orleans; an aunt and uncle, Brenda and Jeff Vecchione of Eastham; and a cousin, Tye Vecchione of Chatham. Services will be held at a later date.
He's going to heaven because he spent his time in hell. Thank you.
haunts me a bit now, I just read his myspace page, and he lists Crown and Coke under favorite drink.. wish I could buy him one now...
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