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Family proud even as they cry

Nov-16-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

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By MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

The Fisher brothers – Robert and Donald – spent much of the past year in Iraq with separate Army units from Fort Lewis.

They hoped their paths would cross over there, but they never quite managed it, and Robert returned home in late September.

Now Robert is on his way to meet his kid brother, but under circumstances their Army family hoped would never come to pass.

He’s going to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the waypoint for returning U.S. casualties, and he will escort Donald’s remains home to Parkland.

“It’s a hard thing I’ve asked him to do,” their father, Donald, said Tuesday, as he and his wife, Sheryl, made plans for their son’s burial at Tahoma National Cemetery.

Cpl. Donald Fisher, 21, was killed Friday when his convoy vehicle was involved in a collision in Kirkuk in northeast Iraq, according to a Pentagon news release.

Also killed was Pfc. Antonio Mendez Sanchez, 22, of Rincon, Puerto Rico. Both men were truck drivers with the 40th Transportation Company, a fuel-hauling unit from Fort Lewis.

The Army lists Fisher’s home of record as Avon, Mass., but family members said they’ve been in the Tacoma area for more than 20 years. [...]


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