The war in Iraq has generated overarching interest and concern on many levels, from the political to the personal, since it began five years ago. But even when the conflict hit home with devastating relevance, as when local soldiers died, other news events of the day hinted at an insulated life on the home front:
July 7, 2003: The war was not yet 4 months old when friendly fire killed 46-year-old Army Staff Sgt. Barry Sanford Sr. of Aurora in the town of Balad, northwest of Baghdad.
In Colorado’s Eagle County, basketball star Kobe Bryant had turned himself in to police amid accusations of sexual assault, setting the stage for a courtroom melodrama that would rivet the state — and the nation — for more than a year.
July 21, 2004: Marine Lance Cpl. Mark Engel, a 21-year-old Cherry Creek High School graduate, died two weeks after being injured when a homemade bomb exploded in Iraq’s Anbar province. He would be awarded a posthumous Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.
In Colorado, merchants were scrambling to keep commemorative bracelets in stock. They were yellow and bore the inscription “Live Strong,” the personal motto of American bicyclist Lance Armstrong, who was four days away from winning his sixth Tour de France title.
May 1, 2005: Army Sgt. Derrick Lutters of Burlington was inspecting a bridge in Baghdad when a bomb exploded, killing the 24-year-old corrections officer who’d been sent to Iraq with his Kansas Army National Guard unit.
At Arapahoe Basin, a skier from Denver reveled in 3 feet of new snow. “Good times. Good snow,” he told a Denver Post reporter. “This is the best I’ve seen this late in the season, for sure.”
Nov. 4, 2006: Kyle Powell, who was an Eagle Scout from Colorado Springs before he became a 21-year-old Marine corporal, died when a mine exploded in Iraq’s Anbar province.
On the north end of Colorado Springs, church officials carried crates of tissues into New Life Church that evening, anticipating an emotional outpouring at services the next morning — over the firing of beloved pastor Ted Haggard, caught in “sexually immoral conduct.”
Sept. 5, 2007: Nineteen-year- old Army Pfc. Dane Balcon of Colorado Springs, whose parents both served in the military, died when an improvised explosive device detonated in Balad.
Back home, the Colorado Rockies had just come off a 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants — their seventh win in 10 games and a harbinger of an improbable pennant race that would send them to their first World Series — a sporting phenomenon labeled Colorado’s top story for the year.
