We Should Be Asking Every Day:
Why Do We Continue to Sacrifice Our Sons and Daughters???

CANYON LAKE - A 22-year-old Marine from this Hill Country town was among the 31 service members killed in Wednesday's helicopter crash in western Iraq, his family said.

Lance Cpl. Tony Hernandez was the crew chief on the aircraft, which went down during a desert sandstorm while transporting troops as part of security operations.

Leroy Hernandez, the Marine's father, said he was working the overnight shift at the Comal County Jail early Wednesday when his daughter called to say two Marines were at their house.

"Of course, when she said that, I just knew," said Hernandez, who spent the afternoon sitting outside his home in a small grove of trees. His wife, Evelyn, and other family members took turns holding a framed photo of his son in his formal Marine uniform.

"I just look at the picture and I can't believe it happened," he said. "I just wish we could get those kids out of there."

Ben Hernandez, the Marine's uncle, sat quietly nearby to support his brother's family. "It's tragic for everyone."

Leroy Hernandez, who served in the Navy in Vietnam in the late 1960s, said he spoke to his son by phone Sunday.

"He said it was cold, that he didn't like the weather, that he was working his butt off — the usual gripes," he said. "He didn't say a lot because he didn't want anyone to worry."

Tony Hernandez tried to join the Marine Corps just after he graduated from Smithson Valley High School, his father said, but he was rejected because he was too heavy.

The teenager instead went to a community college in San Antonio, but his attraction to the Marines remained strong. One day he visited a recruiter, and soon he was running hard and dieting to trim nearly 25 pounds off his frame.

By the time he finished Marine boot camp in California, he had lost another 20 pounds.

"We went to his graduation and we almost didn't recognize him," Leroy Hernandez said.

A year ago the Marine surprised his family when he married his longtime girlfriend, who is also from the Canyon Lake area. He deployed to Iraq last summer and was scheduled to return to Camp Pendleton, Calif., in March, his father said.

Leroy Hernandez said that he didn't tell his son much about his combat experience as a helicopter door gunner. But his memories about that earlier war had weighed heavily on him since his son shipped out.

"I knew (the war) was going to escalate — it was pretty much guaranteed," he said. "Unfortunately it's the young kids who end up paying the price."