U.S. Soldier Killed in Ordnance Accident
The Kentucky Wizard
Associated Press Writer
May 19, 2003, 11:04 PM EDT
A soldier who delayed retirement when the war started because of a sense of
duty to the men who served under him has died in Iraq, the Department of
Defense announced Monday.
Master Sgt. William Lee Payne, 46, who joined the Army shortly after
graduating from high school in Otsego, Mich., in 1975, was killed Friday in
Haswah, Iraq, when ordnance exploded as he examined it, the Pentagon said.
Payne's stepmother, Beverly Payne, contacted Monday at her home in
Clarkston, Wash., said an Army liaison officer told the family a different
version of what happened.
The family said a soldier in Payne's unit took a box containing what were
thought to have been dud munitions and tossed them against a tree, causing
an explosion that killed him and injured three other soldiers.
"What happened was so stupid," Beverly Payne said.
Military officials said the death remains under investigation.
Payne was preparing to retire when the war in Iraq started but decided to
wait, his stepmother said.
"He felt that he should go over there with his men that he worked with so
long," she said.
Payne, who had been stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas since 2001, is
survived by his father, his wife and two sons.
--
© The Wiz ®
«¤»¥«¤»¥«¤»
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay
any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose
any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty"
- John F. Kennedy -