Thursday, 4:30 PM
Bedford honors native sons
By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff
BEDFORD -- United two years ago by the terrible bond of grief, two sets of parents -- one mourning the death of a Bedford Marine, the other the loss of a soldier son -- were together again Tuesday night for the unveiling of memorial plaques honoring the pair.
The sparse and elegant plaques, set beneath photographs of John Hart and Travis Desiato, hang side by side in the main lobby of Bedford High School, permanent reminders of the sacrifice made by the two families and this town of 13,000.
The two young men were remembered yesterday as courageous patriots and the best that Bedford has to offer.
"These were two young men who were highly respected and loved by many," principal Jonathan Sills said earlier in the day. "They are of the best that the school has been privileged to educate in terms of their selflessness and their courage."
For their parents, time has not eased the loss.
"It’s as raw today as it was the day it happened," said Laurie Desiato, Travis’s stepmother. "It doesn’t go away, the pain you get from losing a child."
Travis Desiato was part of unit clearing homes in Fallujah on Nov. 15, 2004, when a group of four Marines prepared to kick down a door. It was another Marine’s turn, but Travis volunteered to do it, Laurie Desiato said. Moments after he burst through the door, he was gunned down by a group of insurgents waiting inside.
Brian Hart, John Hart’s father, was one of the first people at the Desiato’s home to help console the inconsolable. More than three years after their son’s death, Brian and Alma Hart have hired a lawyer to interview the soldiers in their son’s unit to get a full account of his death when he was shot by insurgents while he rode in an unarmored Humvee outside Kirkuk, Iraq, on Oct. 13, 2003.
When the details about the attack that killed him were not forthcoming from the military, the Harts filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Pentagon.
"A year after we sent it, they sent us a letter saying the computer hard drive that had the information on it had been confiscated in connection with a criminal investigation, so we couldn’t have access to it," Alma Hart said. "I was like, are you serious? Do you think we’re just going to say 'That’s all right. It’s only our son.'"
"A lot of families feel they have not gotten the truth," Alma Hart continued.
The Desiatos did not get an account of Travis’s death until nearly four months later, when they were at Camp LeJeune for a memorial service and met several Marines from Travis’s unit.
Laurie Desiato said she still has questions about what happened that day, but what she is sure of is that she wants the fighting to end.
"I want every one of them home now," she said. "These are kids; they’re just kids."
Douglas Belkin can be reached at dbelkin@globe.com
