Bernard Sembly and Robin Vincent Fell
Monday, May 23 2005 @ 08:09 AM EDT
Contributed by: tomw
Shreveport Times -- The tragedy of war reached into Shreveport on Thursday, taking the firstborn sons from two families. Sgt. Bernard Sembly, 25, and Spc. Robin Vincent Fell, 22, both members of Shreveport's 1/156th Armor Battalion, were shot by sniper fire in Baghdad, family members said.
"It happened Thursday morning around 10 our time," Frederick Britton, Sembly's father, said Friday from the family home in Deer Park Estates. "He had just dismounted from the tank and was on his way to an observation post when he was shot in the chest."
Army officials notified next-of-kin late Thursday, both families said.
Sembly was the oldest of three children of Britton and his wife, Renee, and was a 1999 graduate of Huntington High School. Frederick Britton, a manufacturing production supervisor for GM and Nissan supplier Plastech of Shreveport, served 10 years in the Army and encouraged his son to join the service. Sembly had an 18-month-old son, Tyler Sembly, said Renee Britton, a Shreveport sales executive.
Fell was the oldest of six children of Shreveport educator Roger Fell, a teacher at Hamilton Terrace Learning Center, and his wife, Katherine, vice president of development at Centenary College in Shreveport.
Fell, a 2000 graduate of Captain Shreve High School in Shreveport, was a freshman at Centenary majoring in business administration when his unit was called to active duty, his brother Elliott said. Elliott Fell also is in the military, serving with the Air Force Reserve's 917th Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base.
Sembly visited his family while on leave in December, not long after he'd shipped to Iraq. Fell was due to be home on leave in June, his father said.
As at the Brittons' home, cars lined the street outside the Fell residence in southeast Shreveport's Broadmoor Terrace neighborhood.
"This is terrible," neighbor Scott Cunningham said. "The families sacrifice, too."
Elliott Fell said any memorials in his brother's name should be made to Centenary College or All Saints Episcopal Church. Frederick Britton said his family had made no memorial plans yet.
"It could be five to 10 days before he'll be home, and it could be longer," Britton said. "Until then, we'll try to make the best of a bad situation.
"It's something we'll never get over. But we'll try to have closure and try to get on with our lives."
3 comments
http://iraq.pigstye.net/article.php/SemblyBernardVincentRobin
"It happened Thursday morning around 10 our time," Frederick Britton, Sembly's father, said Friday from the family home in Deer Park Estates. "He had just dismounted from the tank and was on his way to an observation post when he was shot in the chest."
Fell was the oldest of six children of Shreveport educator Roger Fell, a teacher at Hamilton Terrace Learning Center, and his wife, Katherine, vice president of development at Centenary College in Shreveport.