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By Paul Hill
HOUSTON - Texas, home state of both Presidents Bush, now leads the nation in
number of troops sent to Iraq as well as the per capita death rate among large
states according to the Houston Chronicle. According to Defense Department statistics,
more Texans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan than any other state. 160,100
active duty service members and 23,161 National Guard troops and reservists
from Texas have been sent to the wars in those countries.
Of the 3,210 U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq, 298 were from Texas. Of those, 69 were Houstonians. This means that Texas' death rate for its troops was 6.7 per half-million citizens, far more on a per capita basis than other large states. California had a death rate of 4.7 and New York's was 3.7.
2,200 Texans were wounded out of the 22,677 total wounded in the war according to Defense Department statistics.
The first casualty in the Iraq war was Staff Sgt. Eric Alva of San Antonio, who stepped on a mine and lost his leg as U.S. troops invaded Iraq from Kuwait on March 19, 2003. The war's 3000th death was also from Texas, Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas died on New Year's Day, 2007.
Stories abound in the Houston Chronicle of the suffering of Iraq war veterans
and their families as a result of deaths and injuries, both physical and mental.
The stress of repeated tours of duty, activation of the National Guard, and
little attention to mental problems associated with war duty have taken their
toll on people in the military and their families. Children of military personnel
have been hit the hardest by absent and/or lost parents.