AP: Texas

02/21/2005

Associated Press

The Gertson family sent two sons to fight in Iraq and discovered this weekend that only one was able to come home.

Army Spc. Clinton R. Gertson, a 26-year-old from Eagle Lake who went by Clint, died Saturday in Mosul of wounds received from small-arms fire.

Gertson was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis, Wash. He was at least the 141st Texas service member killed since the war began in March 2003.

Clint Gertson's brother Matt served a year in Iraq.

"I came back and my brother didn't make it," he said. "It's kind of tough, knowing what he was going through. But it was all for the better cause."

Gayle and Susan Gertson said they were relieved when their son was only injured in the suicide bombing of an Army mess hall in Mosul in December. Clint Gertson took shrapnel through his back while 22 people were killed in the attack.

"We thought, 'Whew, that's it, he is going to be fine,'" Susan Gertson said. "So when this happened, it just knocks the breath out of you. You don't understand because they are so young. He had his whole life ahead of him."

Clint Gertson had told his father he hoped everyone knew the sacrifice he and other soldiers were making.

"He said, 'Dad, you just tell everybody that freedom is not free,'" Gayle Gertson said.

Eagle Lake is about 70 miles from Houston.

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Information from: KHOU, http://www.khou.com/