Family learns truth of son's death
Tom Ballard of Hayward (left) greets Col. Brad May, who arrived at Ballard's Hayward home Tuesday afternoon to explain the circumstances surrounding the death of Ballard's son, Ken, in Iraq last year. The soldier's family was initially given an incorrect account of how the death occurred.
By Paul Burgarino Staff Writers |
PUBLISHED: September 14, 2005 at 9:01 a.m. | UPDATED: August 17, 2016 at 7:56 a.m.
HAYWARD — It was divorce, not the war in Iraq, that tore apart Ken Ballard's family. The war just made things worse.
The death of the 26-year-old Army lieutenant in Iraq in May 2004 transformed his grieving mother, Karen Meredith of Mountain View, into an anti-war activist.
It turned his father, Tom Ballard of Hayward, into even more of a patriot.
And when the two parents learned on Friday that the Army failed for more than a year to give them a true account of Ballard's death, Karen Meredith lashed out and Tom Ballard said the mistake wasn't a big deal.
"The issue that his mother is screaming about is, 'Why did this happen?'" Ballard said at his Hayward home on Tuesday afternoon. "Mistakes happen. She's not accepting that. We all make mistakes."
The gunfire that killed Lt. Ken Ballard in a battle in the city of Najaf just before Memorial Day last year came not from insurgents, as his family initially believed, but by a machine gun from his own tank.
Army officials say that because of a technical oversight, the full account of Ballard's death was never correctly relayed to his family members.
On Tuesday, the commander who led the2nd Armored Calvary Regiment last year visited Mountain View and Hayward to apologize and explain to the soldier's parents why they got the wrong story.
"This is beyond professional, this is personal for me," Col. Brad May said as he arrived at Ballard's home early Tuesday evening, just hours after he visited Meredith to relay the same message of apology.
"I'm here to set the record straight. The Army has made a mistake," May said.
Meredith, an anti-war activist who traveled with Vacaville mother Cindy Sheehan to protest outside the president's ranch this summer, did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
She told an Associated Press reporter late last week that the military's failure to tell her the truth until 15 months after her son's death was "unconscionable" and "a betrayal to my son's service."
Tom Ballard, who retired from the Air Force in 1992, said he strongly disagrees with his ex-wife and feels no anger toward the military. The couple have been separated since the late 1970s. Ken Ballard grew up in his mother's Mountain View home.
"Ken believed in what he was doing," Tom Ballard said. "To lose a soldier, and to speak ill of your country because this happened, I just don't think that's showing the respect they're due."
He added, "He's still dead. He still died from small-arms fire. He still died in al-Najaf."
By sunset Tuesday, after May and a contingent of three other Army representatives visited both homes, the colonel said he felt both visits were calm and positive.
"It wasn't some type of cover-up. It was just a misunderstanding," he said. "We're taking a hard look across the board at our systems and procedures."
He said Ken Ballard was killed during a stressful time for his contingent amid days of fierce fighting. Insurgents were firing mortars from the Kufa Cemetery, not far from Najaf's famous mosque. After a battle, Ballard was preparing to back his tank out over a median and out of the combat area.
Branches from a tree whipped a machine-gun turret toward Ballard and depressed a gun switch, May said. Bullets from the gun fired at Ballard and he was killed.
May calls Ballard a hero who was doing everything correctly and trying to protect his unit. He was one of two soldiers in the contingent to die that night.
"To lose two, and to lose both in one night, was very traumatic," May said. "All of the commanders were focused on the soldiers, looking them in the eyes, preparing them to get back to the battle."
May said the first fatality report, which correctly mentioned that the soldier was killed by small-arms fire, went up 10 minutes after Ballard was pronounced dead. It was this initial information that was used to inform the family of the death.
May said it was an oversight that the family never was told the full story until Friday.
Tom Ballard, who painted an American flag on a hillside overlooking Hayward's Garin Park after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, said Tuesday afternoon that he accepted that the immediate investigation was overlooked because commanders were focused on the living soldiers at battle in Najaf.
"Ken would have rather had it that way than for anybody to lose their focus and have more follow him to the grave," he said.
His parents, Elwood and Floy Ballard of Newark, who are also Air Force veterans, were present for May's meeting with Tom Ballard and said they were satisfied with the explanation.
"The act of you being here expresses a lot," a sometimes tearful Elwood Ballard told the visiting soldiers. "This obviously has not been taken lightly."
Paul Burgarino Staff Writers