By Scott Wheeler

Jesse Strong of Albany died in Iraq on January 26, 2005.

Solomon Carias Bangayan was killed in Iraq on January 2, 2004.

Opening the front door of their family home to the sound of a knock, Pastor Nathan and Vicki Strong of Albany saw standing in their doorway their worst nightmare come true – two solemn looking Marines in their dress uniforms.

"Even before they said anything I knew Jesse was dead," Mrs. Strong said as she remembered that horrible night. "They didn't have to say anything." Jesse was their son, a Marine serving in Iraq. He was one of her three adult children.

Most Americans know where they were on September 11, 2001, seven years ago today, when they heard the news that terrorists, using jets as weapons, had launched attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Another plane crashed in a Pennsylvania farm field.

Mrs. Strong said a phone caller alerted she and her husband to the terrorist strikes.

"We quickly turned on the TV at about the same time as one of the towers collapsed," she said. The couple remained riveted to the television for about half an hour when, she said, a thought came to her mind.

"It hit me, Jesse had just graduated from boot camp two weeks earlier," Mrs. Strong said. She remembers thinking, "Oh my goodness, Jesse is a Marine and we have just been attacked so I ran to the phone and called him."

"He said, 'Mom, I'm ready to do whatever I need to do to defend my country."

The terrorist attacks that left almost 3,000 people dead, rocked the country and it's people. Many people, especially of the World War II generation, compared the attacks to the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor Hawaii on December 7, 1941, an attack that catapulted the U.S. into that already raging war.

For right or wrong, it was likely the day in which U.S. officials decided not only to begin planning attacks on terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, but also on Iraq. This article isn't designed to debate the merits of US military action following the terrorist attacks, but to hear from two local mothers who have paid a horrible price since the terrorist attacks. These mothers, and their families, have lived through the unspeakable grief of losing a loved one at war.

"My son is a hero," Mrs. Strong said, reflecting back onto the life of her son that she lost almost four years ago. "He went to Iraq for our country and he went to free the Iraqi people from an evil dictator."

Sergeant Strong was attending seminary when his Marine Reserve unit, Company C of the 4^th Combat Engineer Battalion based in Virgina, was called to active duty. Deployed to Iraq in August 2004, he was assigned to the hazardous duty of clearing mines and roadside bombs. Although he officially served a combat engineer, the young Marine, a devout Christian, was the unit's unofficial chaplain. He eased the worries of his fellow Marines before dangerous missions, and comforted them in times of loss.

Then, on January 26, 2005, came that dreaded knock at the door, and news that their beloved son, a Marine who loved people, including the people of Iraq, had been killed along with three other Marines in an ambush near Haditha, a community northwest of Baghdad. The story of the life and death of the four Marines is told in an hour long CNN documentary entitled, "Ambush at the River of Secrets".

The now late Reverend Jerry Falwell, the then chancellor of Liberty University in Virginia, the college which Jesse graduated from in 2003, traveled to Vermont and took part in the funeral service.

Although she misses her son terribly, she continues to support the U.S. mission in Iraq. Most of all, she continues to support the troops. She said as much as the media doesn't like to show how much good American troops have done, and continue to do, in Iraq, she is confident that life in that country has improved dramatically for the Iraqi people since the ouster, and subsequent execution, of that country's dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Mrs. Strong talks passionately about the people of Iraq. Amazingly she doesn't harbor hatred toward the people who killed her son. "Our highest joy would be for the people who killed our son to accept the Lord and ask for his forgiveness."

Helen Therrien of Jay understands Mrs. Strong's pain all too well. Her son, Solomon Carias Bangayan, a member of the Army's 82^ndAirborne Division, wasn't even an American citizen when he was killed in Iraq on January 2, 2004.

"He loved this country so much," Mrs. Therrien said. "He said living here was his dream come true." Mr. Bangayan, who was known by his friends, family, and fellow soldiers as Kelly, was a native of the Philippines.

Recalling September 11, 2001, Mrs. Therrien said she was working in a nursing home when she noticed what she thought was a movie playing on TV of planes hitting the World Trade Center. "I thought it was a movie," she said. "I didn't think it could be real." Her co-workers told her that no, it wasn't a movie, but a real attack on the U.S. "I couldn't believe it."

Mr. Bangayan arrived in the U.S. in August 2000. He quickly fell in love with his adopted country, Mrs. Therrien said. "When he joined the Army he was so proud of himself. He wanted to defend this country."

Watching the news accounts of the terrorist attacks play out on television, Mrs. Therrien said she and her husband, Mr. Bangayan's stepfather, Victor Therrien, couldn't help but believe that their son was likely destined for war. They were right.

When their son arrived home during a short break from his duty in Iraq in the fall of 2003, she said her son was a changed man. Although he no longer looked at war with excitement, he was still committed to the war. He confided in his stepfather that things were getting dangerous in Iraq and he feared this might be his last trip home. Following this conversation, shortly before going back to Iraq, Mr. Bangayan made a request that was out of character for him: "Can we go to church?"

The family went to a church in New Hampshire where Mr. Therrien's sister is a pastor. To the family's surprise, Mr. Bangayan raised his hand when the pastor asked if anybody in the congregation needed prayer offered to them. Their son was killed in an ambush a short time after returning to Iraq. He is buried in his native Philippines.

"Sometimes it is still hard for me," Mrs. Therrien said. "But I keep thinking about my son's last words to me when he left. He told me if something should happen to me don't cry. I want you to be proud of me."

Although she misses her son, Mrs. Therrien said she does not believe her son died in vain. "He sacrificed his life for the people of Iraq. I am so proud of him."

The loss of her son has not caused her to lose the love for her adopted country. "I love this country," Mrs. Therrien said. "This is the land of freedom. It is where people can make their dreams come true.