Marine loses life on way to re-up

www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/01/07/deadson0.htm

By Alice Kenny
Times Herald-Record
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  Montgomery – Marine Cpl. Suresh Sinanan, who rushed home in October from the bloody battlefields of Iraq to kiss his dying stepfather goodbye, was killed yesterday in a snowy roadside crash less than two miles from his home.
  His mother, Chandra Lee, a widow of three months, is left childless. When her husband, Jeffrey Lee, was dying, she had pleaded with everyone, from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Red Cross, to bring her son home. After days of wrangling with the military and more days of travel time, Sinanan finally arrived at Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, six hours after his stepfather took his last breath.
  The military took mercy on his mother, sending Sinanan to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, Calif., instead of back to Iraq. Last week, Sinanan returned to his mother in Montgomery for a 12-day holiday leave.
  Then, yesterday morning, Sinanan dressed in his Marine uniform, preparing to re-enlist at the recruiting office in Middletown. He began shoveling his mother's driveway but stopped when he realized he was late for his appointment. He promised his mom he would finish the job when he returned.
  He never did.
  As sleet mixed with freezing rain, the Marine lost control of his mother's 1994 Ford Explorer, state police Lt. Keith Corlett reported. As the Explorer headed west on Route 17K in Crawford, it suddenly skidded into the eastbound lane just past Youngblood Road. It then ricocheted off a guardrail, dead-on into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer.
  Troopers pulled Sinanan's body from the wreck. In his pocket was the family photo he had lent the Times Herald-Record three months earlier when it ran a story about his stepdad.
  Back then, strangers rooted for Sinanan as he raced home, hoping to see his stepfather still alive. Staff at Orange Regional Medical Center took on the family's plight as their own.
  When Jonnie Wesley Kruger, a hospital spokeswoman, learned of Sinanan's death, she caught her breath.
  "I can't even fathom something more horrific than this," she said. "We are devastated here."
  Friends, who recently filled Chandra Lee's home to comfort her over the death of her husband, returned to the modest farmhouse to help her cope with the death of her only child. A maple tree out front was festooned with a large yellow ribbon. A red holiday bow was fastened around another tree. The house emptied quickly to rush Chandra, who has a weak heart, to the doctor's office. She began having difficulty breathing as her son's fate sank in.
  Last night, eight hours after the fatal accident, sleet pounded the ground in front of the darkened home. Mike Rodia, 21, shivered in the driveway, remembering Sinanan as a good a good son and a good Marine. Then he picked up a snow shovel, finishing the job his best friend since seventh grade left behind.

RIP  

Words escape me at the moment, so I'll just say - RIP, Marine....



  - georgestrings

RIP Marine Cpl. Suresh Sinanan.

If you know the family wish them the best for me. RIP Marine.

Truly Sad

stories like this really  test ones faith..........................................

salute