Nightmare war claims another American hero

By Mike Barnicle
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 -

They buried Alex Fuller yesterday. His funeral Mass took place at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis. It was exactly four years to the day after Colin Powell was set up by Bush and Cheney and the rest of a reprehensible crew to help lie us into a war with Iraq by appearing before the United Nations and investing a general’s credibility and career in a hoax that has taken Fuller and 3,422 other noble Americans to their death since the world heard Powell’s words. Fuller was 21, a sergeant in the Army, serving proudly with the 61st Calvary Regiment, 2nd Brigade, right there in Baghdad, right in the middle of a sectarian civil war, just a dozen days ago when an IED exploded, crushing his Humvee, taking away all he ever dreamed.
The wake for Alex Fuller was held Monday night at the Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home in Hyannis, an evening so cold that whispers seemed to freeze in the air. The young soldier grew up in Centerville, attended Newton North High and Barnstable High School, got his GED and then signed up to serve his country.
“He loved the Army,” his uncle Robert Mogavero said as he stood greeting the mourners Monday night. “It was what he wanted to do. He died doing something he loved. That’s something, isn’t it?”





Now, as Mogavero spoke, the dead sergeant’s widow arrived at the funeral home. Her name is Anastacia and she is 19, pregnant, quite beautiful and appears shockingly young.
“I still can’t believe this,” “Stacey” said.
Her husband’s closed casket was draped with the American flag. His medals and Combat Infantryman Badge were framed above the casket. Two posters displaying pictures of Alex Fuller, his bride, friends and family - portraits of the soldier as a young man - stood on easels at the entrance to the funeral parlor.
“This is a tough one,” said Bill Crowley, the funeral director, looking at the snapshots of a kid
swallowed by a war ignited by political duplicity and managed with total incompetence

A priest from St. Francis Xavier, Father Tom Frechette, said a prayer. The mourners, many so young, stood numbed by the cold reality of the casket, the war, the loss.
“My son got the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star,” Sgt. Fuller’s mother Linda said. “The Bronze Star is almost the highest medal. I am so proud of him and I know he’s with God now. I know he is.”
The funeral home is across from a couple of pizza joints and a Chinese take-out. It is down the road from the Cape Cod Melody Tent and Main Street in Hyannis where on summer nights a soft ocean breeze cools sidewalks spilling over with people the same age as Alex Fuller.
This war seems to touch very few of them. Or us. It is a remote enterprise to many - a headline, a casualty list - and it remains what it was from the start: a war of choice, manufactured by people like Bush and Cheney whose only real risk is political defeat.
And so, four years to the day after Colin Powell was used by the cynical to promote a lethal fiasco, another fine young American boy, Sgt. Alexander Fuller, was buried in the cold ground of a country gripped by a nightmare called Iraq.

[ Veterans for Peace Cape Cod Branch had an honor guard at the Funeral Mass and Wake. Flags were put to half mast on Harwich Town buildings, and we wondered why those who recant with ubiquitous "yellow ribbons" to "SUPPORT OUT TROOPS" would have made the effort to attend this fallen soldier's funeral, out of real respect and honor. Shame on you! By the way it is interesting to note that the the Hyannis VFW across failed to honor the fallen son of Cape Cod by not lowering their flag to half mast! ]