Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Steven O’Brien of Sweet Home is mourning the loss of his grandson, Lance Cpl. Steven A. Stacy, 23, in Iraq; and if anything, it has reinforced his belief in the fight in Iraq.
Stacy was a rifleman in the 3rd Battalion 1st Marines, known as the Thundering 3rd.
He was on his first tour of duty in Iraq and had recently crossed into Iraq after training in Kuwait.
On July 5, he was on patrol in Karma, about six miles northeast of Fallujah when a sniper shot him through the neck, O’Brien said. He was the 94th Oregonian to die in Iraq.
Stacy, a former Sweet Home resident, was named for his grandfather and lived in Coos Bay, O’Brien said. Stacy was born in Yuma, Ariz., and he lived there till he was 4. He moved to Sweet Home and lived here till he was 10, and then he moved to Coos Bay.
The young man was one of 11 grandchildren, said O’Brien, who has three children and eight great-grandchildren.
O’Brien has lived in Sweet Home off and on all his life, and his children and grandchildren live across Oregon – in Albany, Tangent and the south coast area.
“The following Wednesday, he was brought back to North Bend by a charter jet,” O’Brien said. At the North Bend Airport, he was transferred to a hearse and escorted by family, a Marine honor guard and 30 to 40 members of motorcycle clubs.
The clubs included O’Brien’s, the Oregon Veterans Motorcycle Association along with the Patriot Guard Riders and Riders for Christ, including in-country and combat veterans.
Another 80 bikers attended the funeral, O’Brien said. O’Brien attended with his wife, Mechelle.
Stacy was buried on July 14 at Sunset Memorial Park in Coos Bay with full military honors, O’Brien said. Gov. Ted Kulongoski was among those speaking at the funeral, which was well attended.
O’Brien said he was not nearly as close to Stacy as he should have been.
“From this point on, I’m going to be a lot closer to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he said.
“Me and Steve always got along good and had fun together,” O’Brien said, but he didn’t feel like he took the time he should have.
“I’m very proud of him,” said O’Brien, who served two years in the U.S. Navy. “The governor said he was one of America’s heroes. I believe that. He ain’t no more a hero than the other ones who died over there and the ones still fighting over there.
“My position has not changed one bit on the Iraq war,” O’Brien said. “We’ve got to do it. If we bring our military home, these people will follow us right to our homes.
“If we did what liberals want us to do and we bring all these people home, all these people here died for nothing.”
The minister at the funeral talked about 1937, when Adolph Hitler began invading his neighboring countries, taking away freedom and lives, O’Brien said. Americans weren’t interested in a war “over there,” but on Dec. 7, 1941, the other enemy “came here.”
“Sept. 11, they came over here,” O’Brien said. “Now we’re over there to keep them from coming back over here. I’m not necessarily in complete agreement with the politics of the war. I think we ought to get politics out of the war. I think we’ve got to get up Monday morning and treat it like it’s Normandy.”
The O’Briens have been to two funerals with the OVMA since Stacy’s, and they’re tired of American losses.
“We’ve got to stop losing American lives, but we’ve got to win it,” O’Brien said. “It’s a war to keep our freedom.”
The O’Briens met five wives from Stacy’s unit, O’Brien said. Their husbands are still doing the same thing O’Brien was, and they support their husbands.
When others lose a loved one in Iraq and blame the military, it dishonors the fallen soldier, Mrs. O’Brien said.
Stacy knew what he was doing, O’Brien said. “This is what he chose to do.”
The O’Briens and veteran motorcycle clubs ride at the funerals to respect and honor the fallen soldiers.
O’Brien contrasts Americans’ response to the Iraq war veterans to the hostile reception Vietnam veterans received when they came home, a time when they were spit upon.
It appears different now, O’Brien said. “We don’t have the flower children. If we do, they’re too old.
“There are a lot of people who don’t like this war. I don’t like this war (but) I believe when we went over there, we went for a reason.”
If the United States were to withdraw from Iraq early, he said, he knows that more than 3,000 families of boys who’ve died there will be disappointed.
The O’Briens gave Stacy an OVMA jacket when he went into the Marines. Stacy’s immediate family returned that jacket to the O’Briens.
Stacy was the son of Robert and Dana Potts. He had three sisters, Crystal, April and Hallie.
The O’Briens will send another loved one to Iraq this year. A son-in-law will ship out for Iraq on Dec. 14.
“It scares me, and I know it does my daughter as well,” Mechelle O’Brien said, but they hope that he will go to Iraq, do his job and come home safely.
“I’m also very proud of him, both of them,” she said.
For information about the OVMA, call 409-6011 or 401-8427. The group is dedicated to veterans, their families and communities.