Mothers Grieve for Sons Lost During War [View All]

MALDEN, Ill. - Nancy Hollinsaid points to her favorite photograph of her son. Lincoln Hollinsaid is wearing his Army uniform somewhere in Iraq (news - web sites). Even his teeth are covered in sand.


Rosemarie Dietz Slavenas pulls out a photograph of her son. When people think of him, this is the one she wants them to remember. Brian Slavenas is in uniform, too. That of a Little Leaguer.


The two mothers share an obvious pride in their sons. They also share the pain of losing them in Iraq — Army Staff Sgt. Hollinsaid in a battle at Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) Airport in Baghdad, Army 1st Lt. Slavenas when his helicopter was shot down near Fallujah.


But in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 550 soldiers, the choice of photographs suggest the two mothers are also different sides of the same coin: Hollinsaid keeping alive the memory of a soldier's life, and Slavenas the memory of a life before soldiering.

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