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Poignant tale captures what we want to believe
© St. Petersburg Times It was one of those stories from the war in Iraq that seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately, that's what it turned out to be. Like so many apocryphal tales these days, this one began on the Internet. An anonymous e-mail message saluting American servicemen and women who have lost their lives in Iraq began showing up on people's computers around April 4. Included on the list was Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Buesing of Cedar Key whose father lives in west Pasco. The second part of the message, however, was riveting. It referred to a live CNN broadcast from embedded reporter Martin Savidge that supposedly took place on Sunday, March 30. "Savidge was talking with four Marines near his foxhole this morning live on CNN. He had been telling the story of how well the Marines had been looking out for and taking care of him since the war started. . . . He turned to the four and said he had cleared it with their commanders and they could use his video phone to call home. None of these Marines had been able to talk with their families for many weeks. "The 19-year-old Marine next to him asked Martin if he would allow his platoon sergeant to use his call to call his pregnant wife back home whom he had not been able to talk to in over a month. A stunned Savidge, who was visibly moved by the request, nodded his head -- yes. The young Marine ran off to get the sergeant. "Savidge recovered after a few seconds and turned back to the three young Marines still sitting with him. He asked which one of them would like to call home first? The Marine closest to him responded without a moment's hesitation. "Sir, if it's all the same to you, we would like to call the parents of a buddy of ours, Lance Cpl. Brian Buesing of Cedar Key, Florida, who was killed on the 23rd of March near Nasiriyah. We would like to see how his folks are doing and let them know their son died bravely." "At that, Savidge totally broke down and was unable to speak. All he could get out before signing off was, 'Where do they get young men like this?' " The story is easily believed because of the exemplary conduct exhibited by the American armed forces in this conflict. Thanks to the Pentagon's experiment with attaching the press to the combat units, Americans have received greater access than ever before to their fighting forces. We all have come to expect daily acts of heroism and selflessness. This particular tale struck a chord because it involved Cedar Key's Brian Buesing, whose death was still fresh in our minds. It was relayed to me by Gail Hollenbeck, the Citrus Times' religion writer who, like anyone who read it, was moved by the Marines' actions. But she also realized that a lot of what floats across the Internet is fabrication. We set out in search of verification. While Gail turned to a Web site that tracks down "urban legends" (www.snopes.com), I went the old-fashioned route and called Brian Buesing's family. Brian's stepfather, Roger Steve of Cedar Key, said he and Brian's mother, Patty, had heard something about a call from Iraq being made, but they did not receive any such contact. Not that they wouldn't love to speak with some of Brian's fellow Marines. A call to Brian's father's family in Pasco County yielded similar results. No, they had not received any videophone calls from Iraq, but they were interested in anything I might find out about the circumstances of the 20-year-old's death. Several days later, the mystery was solved when the online myth-busters finally reached CNN officials and received this response: "Thank you for your interest in CNN's reporting. Martin Savidge, who is embedded with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, has been reporting live from Iraq since the beginning of the conflict. However, neither Martin nor any CNN correspondents filed the report you describe. Martin, like many other journalists, has occasionally lent his phone to members of the military so that they could make personal calls from the field, and other news organizations have mentioned these sorts of calls in their reporting. Although this piece is fiction, one part of it -- an especially sad part -- is gospel: Lance Cpl. Brian Buesing was a Marine who was killed in action on 23 March 2003 near Nasiriyah." Snopes.com added this apt postscript: "The piece is turning up in boxes everywhere because it captures the essence of what we most want to believe about the young Americans now serving in Iraq, that they are heroically selfless. And on this we cannot help but agree." I'm repeating the story here not to give it any credibility or to perpetuate the myth but to reveal it as a fiction, in case it happens to find its way into your e-mail. More than that, checking out the story left a personal impact. When I spoke with Roger Steve, our conversation drifted from the rumor of the phone call and became just a chat between a couple of dads. We talked about the challenges of raising teenage boys and the pride a father feels when his boys cross that threshold to manhood. Two total strangers, we found we had much in common; similar parenting experiences, lots of joy mixed with the occasional heartache. He spoke of Brian in the present tense, and there was no way that I was going to correct him. Even though the story turned out to be fiction, it was not worthless. It put me in touch with a number of people who are grieving the loss of their son, a young man I wish I had had the pleasure of knowing. It also brought home this made-for-TV war. In the coming weeks and months, as America's warriors begin to return from Iraq, we'll see many scenes of tearful reunions and we'll thrill to the joy these families feel as their loved ones set foot once again on U.S. soil. When these great moments flash across the TV screen, I'll be thinking of Brian Buesing's family, who welcomed home their son in a much different manner. -- Greg Hamilton is editor of editorials for the Citrus Times.
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