CLOVIS, Calif. — It has become a never-ending heartache within the hallways of Buchanan High School: news that another former student has died in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Eight former students have been killed in the two wars, including a Marine sergeant who will be laid to rest today after dying Dec. 2 of a head wound in Afghanistan.
The community in the heart of California’s farm country has become all-too-familiar with the rituals of grief that have followed each death — tearful remembrances, flag- draped coffins, candlelight vigils. The school even built a memorial garden where the names of the fallen soldiers are cast in bronze to remember their service.
Austin Kohl is a Buchanan High senior who wants to enlist in the military and roams the hallways with a red and yellow Marines lanyard hanging from his pocket. The 18-year-old is nervous that he could go to war, nervous of his fate because of where he goes to school.
“We just lost another one. And most of them were from the branch that I want to join,” he said Wednesday, his green eyes downcast, braces glimmering when he talks. “I think about it every day.
“I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to be scared either,” Kohl added.
Principal Ricci Ulrich said she is constantly asked why the wars have taken so many young men from the school.
“I don’t know why,” she said. “I wish I had that answer.”
More than 600 soldiers from California have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some high schools have suffered multiple losses, but Buchanan High seems to have been hit the hardest.
The first war tragedy struck in 2004 when a pair of best friends were killed, followed by the death of one of their brothers. In 2007, three more soldiers who once walked the grounds at Buchanan High died overseas.
And this summer, so did 27-year-old Brian Piercy, a Marine 30 days shy of completing his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. His picture still rests at the school’s memorial.
Marine Sgt. Matthew Abbate, 26, became the eighth last week.
