Shaken father writes to president

remembering 2nd Lt. Seth J. Dvorin

Seth Dvorin
February 5, 2004 
Dear President Bush,

With heavy heart, tears in my eyes and a home full of sorrow, I pick up my pen to write you about a brave soldier, 2nd Lt. Seth J. Dvorin, U.S. Army. My son was killed in Iraq on Feb. 3, 2004 fighting in a war.

Seth was a good boy, well-mannered, smart, kind and understanding.

He joined the Army in an effort to serve his country. And serve his country he did. Seth made the ultimate sacrifice.

Burying a child will no doubt be the hardest task that his mother and I shall ever have to do. The one question I have, and the one question I would like you to answer, is, "Why did my son and every other soldier that was killed, maimed and wounded have to suffer settling your vendetta?"

My son is gone just when he was laying a strong foundation to build upon for the rest of his life.

Now, President Bush, his life has been snuffed out in a meaningless war.

Where are all the weapons of mass destruction, where are the stock piles of chemical and biological weapons?

Please President, pray for all our fallen heroes and as a tribute to these heroes get our boys and girls out of Iraq now, before too much more blood is shed.

Since you waged this unnecessary war on Saddam Hussein the world has become a horrible place to live in.

I know my boy is safe now, in a new world free of hate and prejudices where GOD is his president, but you tell me President Bush why he had to go so soon and in such a violent way.

Respectfully yours, 

Richard M. Dvorin 
Published in the Home News Tribune 2/05/04
http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,901315,00.html
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        N.J. soldier killed in Iraq less than a month after visit home
Associated Press

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- When Army Lt. Seth Dvorin flew home from Iraq for two weeks of R&R last month, his family didn't think it would be the last time they'd see the 24-year-old officer alive.

"I never thought my son was going to get killed," Richard Dvorin said Wednesday, 24 hours after learning that his son had been killed while trying to disarm a bomb on an Iraqi roadside. "I'm an optimist. I knew my boy was coming back."

Seth Dvorin was killed Feb. 3 -- 17 days after returning to Iraq -- near Iskandariyah, 35 miles south of Baghdad, his family told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

He was the only soldier killed in the blast and the 17th soldier with New Jersey ties to die in Iraq.

The family learned of the soldier's death, when an Army colonel and a chaplain from Fort Monmouth arrived at their East Brunswick home with the news.

The officers told sister Rebekah Dvorin that Seth's unit had been ordered to clear the area of the homemade mines and bombs that have killed dozens of troops.

"They told us they were in a convoy and saw something in the road," she said. "My brother, the hero, told his driver to stop. That1s when the bomb detonated, when they were trying to dismantle it."

Dvorin, a South Brunswick High School graduate, was part of the 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, N.Y.

Richard Dvorin, 61, an Air Force veteran and retired New Brunswick police officer, called his son a loyal, responsible commander who sought to make life as easy as possible on the soldiers he oversaw.

Offered two weeks' leave in December, his father said, Dvorin refused to go because so many of his platoon members had not yet had the chance.

"He was a good human being," his father said, tears rolling down his face.

Dvorin leaves behind a 25-year-old widow, Kelly Harris. The 2002 Rutgers graduate married his college sweetheart on Aug. 26, a week before his Sept. 2 deployment.
 
 


duckdaotsu offers condolences to Seth's family.  Mr. Dvorin, your letter brings tears each time I read it, and I will keep reading it until our last GI returns from Iraq and from Afghanistan.  I lost a brother in Israel on January 12, 2003 as he was working on a documentary to further the peace process.  I will always think of your family at this time of sadness and loss.  May we see peace come to this world in our lifetimes.  -   lisbeth west
 

photograph and AP story courtesy of www.militarycity.com/valor/    

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