Local families lose sons, gain support

Published Nov. 18, 2006
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer

The inspector general of the Army has apologized to the family of a Canton soldier killed by friendly fire.

He told the family in November that ``anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong'' in the investigation into the death, as well as in communications between the military and the family.

Peggy Buryj, mother of Army Pfc. Jesse Buryj, 21, said three officials, including Army Inspector Lt. General Stanley E. Green, met with her, her husband, Steve, and their daughter, Angela Sokol, for three hours.

Green did not want to comment on meeting with the family, other than to say the death of Pfc. Buryj was discussed.

The family's search for answers in the May 5, 2004, death of the McKinley High School graduate brought them face to face in July 2004 with President Bush in Canton, where Peggy Buryj asked for help in finding out what happened to her son.

The meeting in November followed an inspector general's investigation into the death launched earlier in 2006.

Steve Buryj said his son's death was described as ``a series of unfortunate events.''

The couple said the bullet that killed their son was not kept because it was initially believed he was killed by an insurgent.

``Because Jesse's case was not classified friendly fire, they disposed of all the evidence,'' Peggy Buryj said.

Buryj, a policeman with the 66th Military Police Company out of Fort Lewis, Wash., joined the Army in September 2002. He had married his high school sweetheart, Amber Tichenor, in October 2003.

After serving in Washington, D.C., the 21-year-old was sent to Iraq in February 2004.

The Army initially told the family that Buryj died when the driver of a truck tried to crash into a checkpoint in Karbala, Iraq. The family was told that Buryj fired several hundred rounds at the oncoming truck, saving the lives of other soldiers.

The truck hit the Humvee Buryj was in, the Army said, and he died of internal injuries on an operating table.

But the death certificate the family received said he died within minutes of being shot in the back.

The family said Green finally told them their loved one did die on an operating table several hours after he was shot. He apparently was killed when Polish troops opened fire on an insurgent's truck crashing through a checkpoint.

Earlier, a Polish Ministry of Defense spokesman had said, ``Although the issue of who fired the shot could not be resolved beyond all doubt, all available evidence indicated that it was highly unlikely that the shot was fired by a Polish soldier.''

The family said Green told them Friday that the Army believes the friendly fire came from Polish soldiers, but the destruction of evidence makes an absolute determination impossible.

Holding a two-inch-thick report on her son's death in her hand, Peggy Buryj said the family is relieved the death has been fully investigated.

The government, she said, was sincere in its apology.

She said she knew from the start that the military's account was amiss.

``Does this make it right?'' she asked. ``Yeah. It has to make it right.

``Am I going to get old and nasty and bitter about this? No.''

She added that the answers were a long time coming.

``All I know is my son was shot two and a half years ago,'' she said.

``That was wrong.''