Military Family Mourns Loss Of Second Son

Saturday, March 3rd 2007, 9:52 pm

By: News On 6

Tragedy strikes an Oklahoma military family for a second time. Marine Staff Sergeant Dusty Gould was killed by a bomb he was trying to diffuse in Iraq. This is the second time his family has lost a son in the war, Staff Sergeant Gould's half-brother, a soldier, was killed by a sniper in Iraq. The News on 6â€™s Joshua Brakhage reports this double dose of heartache has a military mother rethinking the war that's claimed two members of her family.

Before Dusty Gould was a war-hardened Marine he was just an Oklahoma boy, already making his mother proud. But the Norman-native grew up all too fast.

"He just wanted to try and make a difference," said Dustyâ€™s mother Karen Gould.

Karen says her son was soft-spoken, but was a man of his word. When he signed up for the Marines he didn't balk as he was deployed to Iraq, not once, not twice, but four times.

"Here for the fourth time now he was sent over, and I said, "Son, that's an awful lot." And he said, "Mom, I'm awfully tired, and he just said I want to come home," said Gould.

With special training in explosives it was up to Dusty to protect his platoon, and disarm a roadside bomb. Literally, taking the entire unit's lives in his hands he went to work. But the job proved to be too delicate. Dusty's mother says he was holding the bomb when it exploded.

"It's a useless waste of energy for our young men, because they're just getting killed one by one," she said.

This Marine mother says she wears camouflage to honor his sacrifice, but camouflage can't hide the pain.

"You think, "not me. It can't be happening to me," she said.

Always putting others before himself, Dusty would tell his mother that he was praying for her and her health.

"And I said, 'Son, well I'm praying for you. Get your heiney out of there. Duck!'" said Gould.

Instead he put himself between a bomb and his brothers in the field, the mark of a Marine, selfless to the end.

Karen Gould flew to California Saturday afternoon to be with her son's wife before his funeral. Staff Sergeant Gould had been in the Marines for 10 years. His mother says he wanted to make a career out of his Marine service, and planned to go to Officer's training.