When it rains, it pours.

[Steff]

for the Oneto family.

 

Family Loses Home to Katrina, Son to War

HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 47 minutes ago

 

 

 

JACKSON, Miss. - Just as she was trying to rebuild her own life after Hurricane Katrina, Elaine Oneto was told by military officials that her soldier son lost his in Iraq.

 

1st Lt. Robert C. Oneto-Sikorski, 33, of Bay St. Louis was on a foot patrol Monday near al Haswah, an area west of Baghdad, when he was killed by a roadside bomb, military officials said.

 

"He was devoted to his children. He is so much more than any of us could say," Oneto said. "He was a wonderful man who loved everyone and his loss is going to devastate this whole community."

 

Oneoto-Sikorski was serving in Iraq with the 155th Brigade Combat Team with the mother of his children, Clare Ranger. The 155th, which is made up of about 3,500 Mississippi National Guard soldiers and others from more than a dozen states, is scheduled to begin returning in waves from Iraq by the end of the year.

 

While in Iraq, storm surge from the hurricane flooded both his mother's home and his own. But in one of their last phone conversations, they looked to the future and talked about his homecoming.

 

"I told him, 'Please be careful, you just have two more months. You just have two more months,'" Oneto said.

 

The back-to-back tragedy has fueled anger for some in Oneto-Sikorski's family. Like other hurricane victims, the family has had a difficult time getting relief and his mother is still waiting for a trailer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said his aunt, Eloise Kindja.

 

"What more does she have to give to the country?" Kindja asked. "She gave her only son."

 

But for Oneto, coping with the loss of her home has taken a backseat for now. Her grandchildren — ages 6, 8 and 11 — are staying with relatives near Memphis, Tenn., where they evacuated from the hurricane. She wants to make sure they remember their father.

 

"I'm going to do my best to make sure his kids never want for anything, and they remember him for the honorable and brave man that he was," she said.

[Balta1701]

"you just have two more months"

[Texsox]

People die in wars, suck it up. America is so much safer now. And build your own damn house, don't wait for some government trailer like it's free cheese.

Damn it's fun being a republican

[kapkomet]

People die in wars, suck it up. America is so much safer now. And build your own damn house, don't wait for some government trailer like it's free cheese.

Damn it's fun being a republican

Seriously, that's bull s***.

[WilliamTell]

People die in wars, suck it up. America is so much safer now. And build your own damn house, don't wait for some government trailer like it's free cheese.

Damn it's fun being a republican

 

Haha government cheese sucks, I've had it before. But yes unfortunately people die in wars but no one should be told to suck it up for having family members risk their life to make America safer.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Seriously, that's bull s***.

I think he's just having fun pissing off the radical right (cuz scarily there are some radical righties at my school who have espoused the same thing..."Tough s***. People die in war." and also that it would just be federal government bloat to assist in paying off Katrina -- let the private sector do it.")

[The Critic]

How DARE you!!!!

A family loses their home to a hurricane and you have the AUDACITY to call the thread "When It Rains, It Pours"??????

SHAME on you, young lady..............SHAME...................

[The Critic]

Haha government cheese sucks, I've had it before. But yes unfortunately people die in wars but no one should be told to suck it up for having family members risk their life to make America safer.

My family had to get that cheese for a while when I was young ( dad got injured on the job, mom didn't work ).

That stuff wasn't TOO bad for grilled cheese sandwiches, otherwise.....not that good.....