widow of fort carson soldier skips meeting with president
associated press
pueblo, colo. – the widow of a soldier killed in iraq says she skipped a meeting with president bush because she is angry with the president and “”didn’t want to go and be disrespectful.””
johnna loia of pueblo was among family members and relatives of those killed in the war who were invited to meet with bush at fort carson on monday.
loia’s fiance, spc. brian penisten of ft. wayne, ind., was killed nov. 2 in a helicopter crash along with three other fort carson soldiers. in all, the crash killed 16 u.s. troops.
penisten, 28, was on his way back to colorado to marry loia.
“”i have a lot of harsh feelings for the president right now,”” loia told the pueblo chieftain. “”i contemplated going, but right now i think i’d find it hard to be respectful.””
loia also chose not to watch a live telecast of bush’s speech: “”i decided to go out and run some errands instead.””
loia said she might have asked bush why he went to war.
“”i would want to know why he decided to go to iraq and why he felt that the war was justified,”” she said. “”in my eyes, i don’t feel it was justified at all.””