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One town's sacrifice: Four Tracy soldiers die in Iraq

Aug- 6-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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By Ben van der Meer

TRACY -- On a cloudless summer morning, it's quiet at the Tracy War Memorial. Passersby heading to the neighboring Lolly Hansen Senior Center glance at the black granite edifice, then keep moving as the sun throws the engraved names into a dull shadow.

Here, Tracy's sacrifice in the ongoing Iraq conflict is an ongoing story.

"You engrave these names on the black granite, and sometimes it's engraved on your conscience," said John Serpa, president of the Tracy War Memorial Association, the group that raised money for the memorial to be established in 1991 and has presided over subsequent Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies at the site since then.

With four soldiers now returned to Tracy in flag-draped coffins, this year is, in a somber fashion, the busiest for Serpa since the memorial was established.

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joe Menusa, killed in the war's early weeks in April 2003, was the first Tracy casualty, and his name went on the wall last November. Since then, Army Staff Sgt. Stephen Bridges, Army National Guardsman Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey and Army Pfc. Jesse Jack Martinez have died as well -- making the conflict the deadliest for Tracy since Vietnam. [...]

One can find small ties between all the Tracy soldiers who have gone, linking them to each other and Tracy's veteran history. Relatives of Menusa live on the same southwest Tracy street as Martinez' family.

Martinez graduated from Duncan-Russell High School, which is named for two Tracy soldiers killed in Vietnam. Both Bridges and Martinez were in the Stryker Brigade, and died when vehicles of the same name rolled over in accidents. And McCaffrey lived on Rusher Street, named for a fallen Tracy soldier from Vietnam.[...]


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