News Tribune -- She can still see him, just a boy, make-believe flying in a plywood plane dangling from the box elder in the backyard.
"He had the World War I goggles, the white scarf and everything -- I can see him out there working the ropes and just flying, he always wanted to fly,'' said a grieving mother and state Sen. Becky Lourey Friday.
Earlier the senator learned the news that all mothers with children in Iraq fear the most. Her son, Army Chief Warrant Officer Matt Lourey, a helicopter pilot, had been killed in a crash north of Baghdad on Thursday.
Matt was on his second tour in Iraq, although he didn't have to be there, said family members and friends who had gathered at the Lourey farm in rural Pine County to mourn their loss.
The military said earlier Friday that two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday when their OH-58 Kiowa helicopter was shot down and crashed in central Iraq, but there was no official confirmation that Matt Lourey was involved in that crash near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad.
U.S. and Minnesota flags, flying at half-staff on the wooden flagpole in front of the family farmhouse, fluttered in an occasional breeze. Bleeding heart flowers bloomed by the front porch of the home, where the senator and her husband, Gene, have raised 12 children. Eight of those children are adopted. Matt was one of four biological brothers -- two of his adopted siblings died previously.
Matt Lourey had a wife, Lisa, and lived in the Washington, D.C., area.
Matt's oldest brother, Tim, stood vigil in the driveway while younger brother Tony talked with the media.
"My dad's not in any kind of condition to talk,'' Tim said. Of his mother, Tim said,"She's the pillar of strength. But when this all settles down she'll be down a long, long time.''
His brother was somebody special, Tony Lourey said. "Well, he was a hero,'' Tony said. After his first tour in Iraq, Matt had been offered an opportunity to train on fixed-wing aircraft instead of helicopters, and with that he'd have still been in stateside training, Tony said.
"But his take was flying helicopters was what he was trained to do. He had taken those things through some tough situations before and he felt honor-bound to fly and protect the ground troops,'' Tony said. ``He believed by being there lives would be saved.''
Tony said every other time his family heard of a helicopter crash in Iraq they were first fearful and then relieved when they learned it wasn't Matt. That sense of relief also came with a sense guilt. "In those cases we were just pawning off the pain on some other family,'' Tony said. "You get to do that only so many times, I guess.''
At age 18, after graduation and being homecoming king at Askov High School, Matt Lourey joined the Marines. "The recruiter promised him he would be able to fly, but they stuck him on ship instead,'' Tony said.
So, when Matt's Marine Corps enlistment was up, he went to Vermilion Community College in Ely to get his private pilot's license and later joined the Army, where he stayed as a helicopter pilot. He served 23 years in the military. It's likely he will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
"Matt's goal in life was to get up in the air,'' Tony said.
Tony recalled his brother's skill with plywood and power tools. Matt once built a Red Baron Halloween costume featuring the entire plane. "He wore the damn thing around all night,'' Tony said.
Her eyes welling with tears, Becky Lourey received visitors, including the media, much of Friday. But she seemed clearly torn between tending her family and tending her public role as a state senator.
"I do believe that Matt belongs to the people now,'' said the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party senator, who in 2003 authored a resolution against the Iraq war. "Matt and all the others. They've given their life for the decision that our president has made for our country.''
But, still in a state of shock, Becky Lourey the mother couldn't believe her boy, who built airplane swings out of plywood and ropes, was really gone.
