A small town mourns its big sacrifice in Iraq

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2008 | by Rick Hampson

LEE, Maine -- It's a question old-fashioned Yankee wisdom can't answer: How, in just five months, could a town whose population is less than 850 lose two young men in Iraq -- as many as it lost in all of World War II?

Why Lee? No one can say. Not the high school guidance counselor who sees new military recruits come into her office; not the pastor who's leading his Bible class through the Book of Job; not the Red Cross volunteer who helped plan the funerals of Joel House and Blair Emery.

Both were killed last year by roadside bombs during the U.S. military's troop buildup in Iraq. Both had had their tours extended.

"It feels like we're being picked on, and we don't know why," says Gail Rae, the Red Cross volunteer. Joel House used to mow her lawn....