Covering a Soldier's Death: Tough But Rewarding

This week and last I covered the death of Sgt. Frank Gasper, a Merced soldier killed in Iraq on May 25.

I take these stories seriously. Putting the news of a soldier's death on the front page is a way for the community to say to the family, We appreciate your sacrifice and grieve with you.

If the reporter does a good job, the family will cut that story out and keep it as a permanent reminder that when their son or husband or father was killed, his death didn't go unnoticed.

If you screw it up, it's like the newspaper -- and by extension the community -- doesn't care. So I wanted the stories about Gasper to be pretty darn good/perfect.

But getting those articles onto the front page in reasonable shape takes work and luck.

If you want to write an accurate article, you need lots of information. That means asking grieving family members to talk. You don't like intruding on people when they're experiencing a loss, but you're motivated by the reality that if you don't get the facts, you won't be able to write something about who the soldier really was as a person.

Gasper's immediate family didn't want to talk to the media at first. Luckily a cousin contacted me. She wanted copies of the first story I wrote about Sgt. Gasper's death. I told her I wanted to write a longer story about Sgt. Gasper. She trusted me enough to put me in touch with family members who could tell me about Sgt. Gasper. Without her help, I wouldn't have had a way into the family.

Next up is the writing of the actual story. In a case like this, you want it to be 110% right. A mistake would ruin the family's keepsake.

That means you have to call family members back and ask weird questions like, Did Frank grow up on a dairy farm or near a dairy farm? Did he win the burn out contest during the Merced County Fair or just at the fairgrounds?

You also have to mesh together different recollections. Some relatives described Frank as shy, some said he was soft-spoken, some said friendly and outgoing.
People are different around different people, so what's the truth? I checked in again with those closest to Sgt. Gasper to try to get the most accurate information. In a case like this, you use the stuff that everyone agrees on. For example, all of Frank's relatives mentioned his big smile right off the bat when I asked about him, so I made sure to include that in the story.

Covering the memorial service was tough. You're there, watching it, just like everyone else. It's devastating. But you have to take notes. And you have to do stuff like walk up to the pallbearers and ask them their names in case they're named in photo captions. Turns out the Army doesn't release the first names of pallbearers, only the last names.

Afterward, I felt sad and drained just like everybody else who was there. But it was time to write my story - and get on the phone and make sure all my facts were right. Luckily the Army has a media rep who attended the funeral and was there to answer questions. I called her four times with questions like, Was the general who handed the folded casket flag to Sgt. Gasper's wife called "the" commander of special forces or just "a" commander of special forces? Are maroon berets for special forces soldiers or Airborne soldiers?

I didn't sleep that night thinking about every line of that story and every possible way I could have screwed it up.

But the next day I got my reward. An email from a reader said the article "was a keepsake for those of us who were lucky enough to have known Frank."

Better yet, Sgt. Gasper's mom, aunts, uncle, grandma and cousins all thanked me for the story and asked for copies.

It was the least I could do for Sgt. Frank Gasper and his family.

P.S. If you want to watch the entire memorial service for Sgt. Gasper at Apostolic Tabernacle, check out the church's website at http://www.upcmerced.com/