Mother of Sailor Killed in Iraq Tells Seattle Paper: 'Needless Loss Of Life Must Stop'

By: Greg Mitchell Increasingly in recent months, the parents of American troops killed in Iraq have reacted with anger or outrage. The latest example comes after a petty officer from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station (in the state of Washington) became the sixth member of a bomb disposal unit to be killed in Iraq.

Kevin Bewley, 27, of Hector, Ark., died Monday of wounds from a bomb that detonated in Sala ad Din Province. He was on his second deployment to Iraq.

Bewley's mother, Connie Whitaker of Greenbriar, Ark., said the death of her son was devastating.

"The needless loss of life of our American servicemen and women is something that we as a nation must stop now," she told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "My son was precious to me, but so are the lives of everyone who has died needlessly, been maimed or who will suffer the trauma and horror of this senseless war."

Bewley, who was divorced, leaves behind a 4-year-old daughter.

Three sailors from the same unit were killed in April, and two were killed in July.

"He had a real good personality. He was always sympathetic to people," Bewley's father, Ron Duke Bewley, told the Seattle paper. "You bet I was proud of him."

Bewley had been with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 based in Oak Harbor since August 2005. His brother said other members of Unit 11 often would join them on their camping or road trips.