Ex-Iraq war POW helps kin of fallen Army buddy
BY MARK SHAFFER AND BETTY REID - AP
FLAG STAFF, Ariz. -- The never-ending roller coaster of emotions for the parents of deceased war hero Lori Piestewa, the first American Indian woman to die in combat, has reached a new high.
Terry and Percy Piestewa of Tuba City, Ariz., are about to settle into a new $500,000 house north of Flagstaff, with a glorious view of the San Francisco Peaks, courtesy of the popular ABC program ''Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.''
The kicker?
The person who nominated the family for the home is Lori Piestewa's best friend and fellow member of the 507th Maintenance Company from Fort Bliss -- former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch. Lynch's riveting story of capture and near death dominated the first few weeks of the Iraq war.
Killed in 2003
Lori Piestewa became an icon, especially to American Indians, after the column of supply trucks in which she was driving was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah in March 2003 during the first week of the fighting. She later died of injuries suffered in that attack. Lynch was wounded and held captive.
''I think it's a great thing. I just wish they could give a home to every soldier, every veteran, every gold star mother,'' said Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. ''I wish they could do that, but I appreciate what they are doing for one of our heroes.''
Lori Piestewa was half Hopi and half Hispanic, and she grew up in Tuba City, which is the regional center of the western part of the Navajo Nation.
Lynch will assist in the design of the 4,300-square-foot home, which will be built during the next week by a crew of 1,300 workers and filled with more than $65,000 worth of furniture.
In addition to the new home, the ABC program is arranging for a new Navajo Nation Veterans Office to be built in Tuba City, also within the next week.
For years, the Piestewa family has lived in an overstuffed mobile home owned by the Tuba City Unified School District, where Terry has worked as a maintenance man and Percy has been a secretary. Both will be retiring soon.
Piestewa and Lynch had talked about the house that Piestewa, the only Indian woman killed in combat on foreign soil, some day wanted to build for her two children and parents, said Lynch's publicist, Aly Goodwin Gregg.
Rena Whiterock, Lori's former mother-in-law, said she is excited for her grandchildren, Lori's children, Brandon, 6, and Carla Lynn, 5.
''I'm happy and thrilled they will have a big house because they'll enjoy it,'' Whiterock said.