Analysis: Iraq war's burden falls most heavily on soldiers from rural counties

Christopher Wasser

WICHITA, Kan. - Christopher Wasser saw military service as a way to pay for his education.

Of course, it had to be the Marine Corps.

"His feeling was that if he was going to do this, he would go all the way," said his mother, Candy.

She wasn't crazy about the idea. He would be an infantryman, in the thick of any fighting.

The day before her son left home, he asked her what she was so afraid of.

"You think there's going to be a war?" he asked.

He reported to San Diego for training. His first full day: Sept. 11, 2001.

Wasser was part of the initial invasion into Iraq in 2003. He died during his second deployment at age 21 on April 8, 2004, of shrapnel wounds in Anbar Province.

Soldiers aren't numbers, but numbers are telling a story about soldiers like Wasser and others from rural counties.

They are carrying the heaviest burden of the fighting in the Middle East, and suffering the most casualties, according to a national study released last month.

From the Beacon Journal