Gloria Davis remembered

Military families across the country dread hearing about yet another death overseas.

This time the news came to a Portageville family.

Army Major Gloria Scott-Davis becomes the Heartland's first female casualty, and our twentieth service person to die in the line of duty.

The Major's mother is both angry and in a state of shock.

Military service is a tradition in this family; the Major's son and daughter also served.

Major Gloria Scott-Davis herself had been in the army for 18 years, and had only two years to go before she retired.

Scott-Davis's mother thought she lost her daughter five years ago.

In September 2001, the Army Major worked at the Pentagon, but when terror struck on 9-11 luck was on Annie Washington's side.

"She had taken off that morning to go see her daughter," Washington says.

That bought the now grieving mother five more precious years with her beloved daughter.

During that time, the 47-year-old soldier went on a tour of duty to iraq and came back home.

But it wasn't over for Scott-Davis. She returned to Baghdad this September, and news of her untimely death reached Annie Washington at her Portageville home on Tuesday.

"Whatever happened- I really don't want to know all the details, because I don't want to block my view of remembering her the way she was - the way she was; a beautiful person," Washington says.

She remembers her daughter sounding scared the last time she spoke with her on the phone from Baghdad.

"I know she was scared and who wouldn't be? I was scared for her - everytime I turn the news on someone's getting killed," she says.

Washington's grief doesn't stop her anger from ebbing through.

"The people sending our kids over there, their kids aren't over there so they don't know my pain. I wish I could give them my pain so they could know what it's like for five minutes. I'm angry because so many of our kids get killed. I appreciate our kids protecting us but it's not their fight. We've been put into place to fight someone else's battle," Washington says.

The army tells her an investigation is underway into Gloria Scott-Davis' death.

Her body is expected to be flown back to the U.S. in a couple of weeks.

Her son was also serving in Iraq, and is said to be flying home to Washington, D.C. where the Major made her home, in the next few days.

Her mother says she plans on having a memorial service at the church she attended in Marston soon afterwards.

From KFVS 12

Related Link:
Gloria D. Davis dies of gunshot in 'non-combat' incident