May 21, 2025 • 35 mins
Kathleen Faircloth received the news that no parent wants to get. In late November 2004, she learned that her son, U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, was killed during the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq. What followed was the anguish over losing her only child, slowly emerging from the immense grief that followed, and the unexpected joy of finding a family she never expected.
In this Memorial Day edition of Veterans Chronicles, Kathleen Faircloth tells us how the 9/11 attacks sparked Bradley's interest in joining the military and how he joined the Marines impulsively while home from college.
She then explains how Marine Corps boot camp produced significant, positive changes in her son, how much he loved being a Marine, and how she stayed in touch with Bradley while he was deployed to Iraq.
We'll also hear Kathleen's detailed recollection of the day she found out Bradley was killed, receiving his body as it returned to the U.S., and the incredible bond she formed with the surviving members of Alpha Company, 1/8 Marines. It was forged at Bradley's memorial service and has strengthened exponentially over the past 20 years.
Kathleen speaks very openly about her struggles following Bradley's death, the powerful moments that proved she was healing, and her desire to help the men of Alpha Company heal as well.
As we honor those who gave their lives for our nation on Memorial Day and every day, Kathleen Faircloth's candor, humor, and tears will give you a powerful glimpse into those who put their ilves on the line for our nation and the powerful legacy they leave behind.
In this Memorial Day edition of Veterans Chronicles, Kathleen Faircloth tells us how the 9/11 attacks sparked Bradley's interest in joining the military and how he joined the Marines impulsively while home from college.
She then explains how Marine Corps boot camp produced significant, positive changes in her son, how much he loved being a Marine, and how she stayed in touch with Bradley while he was deployed to Iraq.
We'll also hear Kathleen's detailed recollection of the day she found out Bradley was killed, receiving his body as it returned to the U.S., and the incredible bond she formed with the surviving members of Alpha Company, 1/8 Marines. It was forged at Bradley's memorial service and has strengthened exponentially over the past 20 years.
Kathleen speaks very openly about her struggles following Bradley's death, the powerful moments that proved she was healing, and her desire to help the men of Alpha Company heal as well.
As we honor those who gave their lives for our nation on Memorial Day and every day, Kathleen Faircloth's candor, humor, and tears will give you a powerful glimpse into those who put their ilves on the line for our nation and the powerful legacy they leave behind.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth. She is the gold Star
mother of US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, who
was killed during the Second Battle of Fallujah on the
day after Thanksgiving in November two thousand and four. Bradley
served in Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines. Kathleen Faircloth
(00:36):
visited with us while she attended a reunion of her
son's Marine Corps company twenty years after Bradley's death. You'll
hear the full range of emotion, from laughter to tears
as Kathleen tells us about Bradley's childhood and his interest
in joining the military, how Marine Corps boot camp changed
her son, and her conversations with Bradley while he was deployed.
(00:58):
She also shares the awful day she learned learned he
had been killed, being at Dover Air Force Base to
receive his body, and then forging an unbreakable bond with
the men who fought alongside Bradley. Kathleen also shares her
own difficult journey following her son's death, how she's trying
to help members of his company who need to heal
and much more. Kathleen Faircloth was a single mom and
(01:22):
Bradley was her only child. She describes Bradley as a
skinny kid until he fell in love with football and
became a big, punishing linebacker, but he never had much
interest in the military until terrorists attacked our nation during
his senior year in high school.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He did not until not to eleven. And so I
got home from work that day and probably I really
still didn't believe it had happened, because I was at
work at a place that didn't have radio or television
when I got the phone call, No, this is not happening.
You know that I did not see any of the
video that rest of America was and I just thought, no,
(02:01):
this is I'm the Queen of denial too. This didn't
didn't happen. So I get home and Bradley's like, I'm
joining the military. I'm like, oh, no, You're going to
college his senior that year, and he's like, no, I'm
going to go fight for my country. And he said,
I'm the only guy in my class that wanted to
do that. And I'm like, it's because you're crazy. And
so that triggered. I think him watching it because they
(02:24):
had TVs in school, and so once it happened, every
classroom was watching it, and I think in Bradley he was.
He interpreted it as hell, no, this is not going
to happen. This is not going to happen, and he
wanted to go and that triggered his desire to serve
(02:44):
in the military.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did you need to sign off on that?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He didn't join then, So he loved football more than
he wanted to go in the Marine Corps. So he
got a scholarship, went to school at Delta State, Mississippi,
and came home on break and was riding his bike
because he had to keep his body, you know, it's important,
and some Marine recruiter was across the street and hollered
(03:08):
at him, hey boy, you want to join the Marines,
and he enlisted. So he comes home and he's like,
I'm going to get my physical this weekend. I joined
the Marines. I'm like, no, you didn't, because I didn't
say you could, and I'm sure enough I didn't have
to say he could. He was old enough.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
How soon was it that he was off to boot camp?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Boot camp? He went in two days to get his physical,
so that would have been summer. Pretty quickly. It was
hot there, so from summer to boot camp it was
still hot, so pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Did he have time to correspond with you, let you
know what he thought of being a marine for real?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yes. His first correspondence was, I think I should tell
the truth because I think they know some of the
stuff I've done. So he broke his back playing football,
but he he didn't want anybody to know because he
didn't want to beat not qualified to Jordan Rings and
I'm like, Bradley, they're gonna know. He's like, I don't
(04:06):
think they're gonna know. He got arrested maybe a week
before he left for boot camp, and so he really
thought he could cover that up because being quaint of
denial makes children who can deny also, And he's like, yeah,
don't tell, just you don't tell them. So I think
I got a phone call. No, you can't call home
from boot camp. I must have got a letter that
said I think I need to tell the truth. They're
(04:28):
interrogating me, and I think they know. I'm like, yes, idiot,
they know there's a record. So he went from presidential security.
That is what he was enlisted as to infantry, probably
because he's stupid. I'm like, if you're gonna be a criminal,
be a smart criminal. I'm gonna be a stupid criminal.
But anyway, yeah, we have standards.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Was your reaction, your apprehension to him serving in the
wake of nine to eleven different than it would have
been if he had wanted to do it before.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Nine to eleven. I don't remember being afraid through the
boot camp thing, because once kind of transitioned into making
peace about it and went to his graduation. That man
that was at boot camp was not the guy that
left my house. I saw where he was the narcissistic cocky.
(05:19):
It's all about me, you know. I need to hear
my football number called on the stadium speakers, and I
need to make sure the camera saw me make that move.
So under the that behavior, we painted up the suv
going to boot camp graduation with Bradley and blah blah blah,
And when he saw it, he freaked out. He's like,
(05:41):
you have got to get that off of the truck
right now. I'm part of a team and a unit,
and nobody stands out any better than anybody else. And
at that moment, I wasn't my kid anymore, you know,
he changed. It's different. It was better. He was purpose
(06:02):
driven and it wasn't all about what I want and
how good am I? And it was about his team.
Now he loved his football player buddies like the Marine
Corps gave him that purpose and made him part of
something bigger than he was. And he loved it. And
(06:22):
I loved that he loved it because I saw it
change him.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
He's been described by a couple of these guys as
a Marine's marine. What is it about the Marine Corps
that you think he.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Loves so much? I think Bradley would still be in
the Marines he liked it so much. I would have
seen him as a lifer because I would tell people
drill sergeants would not have affected him because he was
raised by his psycho crazy mom. I'm like boot caming
nothing from Bradley. You know, he's lived in boot camp,
(06:53):
but he really had lived in boot camp, but not
with the structure and purpose, just with the insanity of
being tell what to do, and the respect he had
for even the drill sergeants and the people who made
him do things he didn't like doing. And he he
was raised not to be a quitter, so he never thought, well,
(07:13):
this is hard.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Now as he moved into marine infantry, given what's happening
in the world, he knows and I'm sure you know
that he's going to be deployed at some point.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No, because I already told you I'm the Queen of Denial,
so you know that'll be somebody else's kid. You know,
he'd already told me I want to fight for this country,
so it wasn't at least he probably volunteered that if
heybody knew, yes, I'll go. I'll go over there right
in the middle and give me a gun. But I
never contemplated any of that. When I that's probably not true.
(07:47):
It's really hard to connect to those feelings. Honestly, vividly
see him walking away from my car the last time
I laid eyes on him at Campell. Jane know, when
he was leaving in the morning. We were a family
that didn't cry, so it wasn't like We're gonna boohoo
and be all sappy and crap. No, And I was
waiting for him to turn around. I'm gripping the steering wheel,
(08:10):
knowing this might be the last time, and he probably
walked twenty maybe thirty feet away, and I'm like getting
a little agitated, because if they love you, you know, they
turn around. It's with the movies too, they turn around,
Look they love you. And so I'm waiting and he
turns around and he gave him that wave and I
got a picture of it, and I knew he was
(08:32):
ready for whatever. And I got to meet some of
the guys. I don't remember anybody but Evan Matthews, and
I saw he was part of something bigger than him,
and I saw that these guys were willing to go
and fight for what they believed was freedom.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
How frequently were you able to stay in touch? If
you were able to stay in touch once he.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Got over there, probably once a month I would get
a phone call. So I was It's nothing uncommon to
see people with cell phones now, but back then I
did not let it depart from my side. And when
he left for boot camp, I had gone outside at
some point and he called from the room they made
it to in Montgomery, I believe, and he left a
(09:15):
message I still have on my voicemail. Well, I guess
you don't care that I've gone off to boot camp.
You can't even answer the phone. Thanks a lot, Mom,
And I caused back, well, I've been room so and so,
and here's the number. And so I now that he
had gone through boot camp and was I kept my
phone beside me. I was learning to take good orders,
and I got letters because I mailed him. At boot
(09:38):
camp he could mail letters. But once he got deployed,
you can mail stuff. It was always gatorade. I don't
know why that's stuck in my head. But I would
get the list and i'd go get it and then
go to the post office and mail it. And then
of course you wonder in six months or they actually
I get this. So you had to keep it going
pretty regular, so that the trend, because it's not like
it took a long time to get stuff back back
(10:00):
and forth. So I would know if something was not
received correctly to his wishes. Anyway, Yeah, I didn't get
phone calls. He called me. It seemed like once a month.
It wasn't regular, but it just it's like that was
all that was important. I stopped everything. To HER's voice.
(10:24):
He called on November the seventeenth to wish his niece
happy birthday, and he said, I got I got injured
yesterday And it was like you said, you know, I
got injured yesterday and no big deal, blah blah blah.
And I was like, okay, oh, and don't tell anybody
I called you today. So I'm like, all right, top secret,
I got this. So when they called to tell me
he had been injured, like have you talked to your son,
(10:44):
I'm like, huh, who, what do you mean? You know,
I'm not sure I can confirm or deny that, sir.
What was the question again? And I said, did he
conte who was injured? And I said, well yeah, And
I'm like, okay, you know. And so that was the
second time. I think those are the first and the
(11:05):
second time it had gotten injured. So yeah, he called sometimes.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Did you know he was in Fallujah when he called you?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh? Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I slip with my
phone right beside my face, because there's usually three or
four o'clock in the morning when he would get phone
liberty for you know, three minutes or something, and you
didn't want to miss it because it may be another
three or four weeks before you get another phone call.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star mother of US Marine Cora
Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, who was killed in Fallujah in
November two thousand and four. When we come back, she
shares the day she found out he had been killed.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Sixty seconds of Service.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
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Speaker 1 (12:51):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star, mother of US
Marine Corp. Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth. He was killed in
Fallujah in Iraq in November two thousand and four. Kathleen
now takes us to the day she learned her son
had been killed, which followed at least two previous injuries.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
The second time he had gotten injured, the guy had
called me from Campbell Jeane and he said, we're going
to get Bradley to call you. Well that was Wednesday,
and he didn't call. And Thursday came and he didn't call.
And so I was becoming a very unpleasant person to
be around to everyone because all I wanted to get
(13:39):
was the phone call. It wasn't nothing, Da da dah.
I'm fine, and it just didn't come. It didn't come.
So Friday after Thanksgiving, I needed to escape my insanity
of waiting and being mean to people because I was
(13:59):
just mean everybody. And I went to the hunting camp
and got the phone positioned in the window sill so
it had a bar so I could hear it, you know,
just in case, and I kind of come down off
that high alert status of maybe not, maybe not. He's busy,
He's why he's not calling. Well, he was busy. But
(14:22):
so I started driving home once when I got the
phone call of the same guy at campl shoon and
God blessed them for having to make those phone calls.
You know, he's because I knew him then, you know,
I'm like, all right, dude. The second time he called
and he said he was injured, and I'm like, well,
how did you get back on the field if he
was injured a week ago? I don't understand. We don't
have any information. I'm like, thanks a lot, I guess.
(14:46):
And so the second call I got from him was
about six point thirty in the morning. I just grabbed
the door knobbed to walk out and I the number
pops up and I just hit the ground and he's like,
that's fair cloth. I'm like, yes, remember's name. He said,
Bradley's been injured again, and I'm like, is it bad?
I don't think so. I don't have any information, you know,
(15:07):
it's okay, and I'm so I want, you know, so
here we are Friday, and when he calls, I want
to say his name was, I don't know. I called
him by name and I said, he said, where are you?
I said, I'm driving. He said, do you need somebody
to come drive you? I said no, I said, it's Bradley. Okay.
(15:28):
He said, I'm not at liberty to tell you that.
Are you on your way home? And I'm like, that's
what you need to tell him, dude, that's it. I got
it because the last thing I wanted was to get
him in trouble. And I knew. I just knew, and
had to drive home. So I was driving about one
hundred and ten miles an hour down these little podunk
(15:50):
country roads, flying trying to call my family. Bradley's been killed.
Bradley's been killed. I just I knew. And I get
to the road I live on, and it was like
my little outer body person was saying, you realize you're
in a hurry to go home to find out your
son's dead. And I just kind of melted, took my
(16:15):
foot off the gas and went, oh yeah, okay. So
I don't know how I got from there to there.
I drove to my house and seeing the Marines and
dress blues is a fierce, striking moment, but it's also
awe and honor because they're they're something to look at,
(16:36):
you know, they're impressive, they're of course they're bigger than me.
Was two guys and a female officer person, and I knew,
I came on, it's time for you to act like
the mother of marine, you know. And I did and
didn't cry, and I let them read their letter and
(16:58):
hand me my flag. And I got Bradley's letter I'd
gotten probably that week that said if I get hurt again,
you need to call all my friends and tell them
what's going on so they know I'm fighting. Because he
wanted to everybody he knew walk up to him, stick
his finger in their chest and said, I'm fighting for you,
fighting for you. And he was still a little egotistical.
(17:20):
He tell everybody I got hurt. So I got on
the phone, called him. All was Thanksgiving weekend and they
were home for college from college and they're at my
house thirty minutes or less, you know, thirty or forty kids.
And the process began, you know, of how do I
(17:42):
honor my son died? I don't do that, So none
of that was really real. It was just do what
you're supposed to do. Do your military, you do what
honors this process. And Bradley, we didn't. I didn't let
him cry as a kid, so I didn't. It was
not gonna cry because I thought that would be disgraceful.
(18:04):
And there were other mothers in the media acting like
psychopaths because their kids had gotten killed. I'm like, wasn't
a draft. Your son volunteered. Apparently he wanted to go
into the military, and you're going to dishonor his death
by blaming somebody that had no control over it. So
(18:28):
I was not going to be that parent. But that
next morning, when I woke up, I walked to the
coffee pot and I reached up to grab the coffee.
That's why I name my son died that moment, not
the night before because I was on my to do list,
but that moment, I na my son was dead.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
That's Kathleen Faircloth, gold star mother of US Marine Corps
Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, killed in Fellujah in two thousand
and four. When We Come Back, Kathleen Faircloth explains how
she became family with the men of Alpha Company, First Battalion,
eighth Marines, and she will share some of the powerful
(19:07):
moments that helped to pull her out of her very
deep grief. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star, mother of US
Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth. He was killed in
(19:28):
Iraq during the Second Battle of Fallujah in two thousand
and four. Kathleen now picks up her story with her
memories of receiving her son's body as it returned home.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So then you wait for a week to get his body,
So then you should go to bed every night going okay.
So did they blow his head off? Did they blow
his arms left? Did he have a you know, well,
I see his face. So I lived out his death
all that time until we got his body off the
(19:59):
plane from Dover and they almost dropped him, which was
hilarious because, you know, because I thought Bradley was so big,
you know, he was too big for these kinds. I'm like, police, Jesus,
don't let him roll out on the tarmac. It might
I may not be able to hold it. Together because
it was all about holding it together. And they did,
(20:20):
and I was like, oh, thank god, because I don't
want people to see him and crying. I didn't want
I didn't want to fall apart. I might have been
crazy if they if he'd have flopped out, I don't know.
So I got to the cemetery of the mortuary funeral
home and I got to see him, and like he
was all there, So I was really I got to
see him, you know. I didn't realize what a gift
(20:41):
that was because a lot of parents didn't get to
see him again.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
But it was a few months later at her son's
memorial service at Camp La June, that Kathleen met the
man of Bradley's company, learned what happened to her son,
and built unbreakable bonds with those men.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So then they planned the memorial service in April at
Camp Jeanne, and I was excited to see the guys
he was with. I hadn't met him, I didn't know him.
I just wanted to see him. I wanted something I
could touch. The flag was great, but it was empty,
(21:16):
you know. I could hold that flag and it represented
what he died for, but it wasn't him. I needed
flesh and blood. I need something I could touch, And
my mom went with me and I met James Shaeffer.
That was at the Marine Corps home office at that point.
There was no seating room in the cafeteria, and he said,
(21:39):
have a seat. He said, why are you here? I
told him, he said, I said, I just want to
know what happened to my son. He said, you need
to meet the guys who fought with him. I did.
I got to meet them and they're still my children today,
every one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
How do you put that into words, what it's like
to meet the people who were with him, the people
he wanted to be with at such a difficult time.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well, the first two I saw, I think it was
two or three in the morning, because we drove seventeen
hours and I was tired, and I had become very
good at self medicating with alcohol and I needed to drink.
So I get out of the car, like I need
a drink? How are you? And it's Nate Fox and
he's like, oh, thank god, let's greet one of those.
(22:25):
And he said, you know, I really had to fight
to get to be the one to come and meet you.
At the gate, and I was like, wow, I felt
so honored that that was important to them and not
to just one person. But I don't know how he
got to be the one. I just looked at it.
I just fell in love with him, you know. And
(22:45):
so the next day we went to the memorial service.
Have sketchy memories, but I remember sitting in that huge
room with twenty one families, and I had my guys
around me, so we're My grief was humongous. My gratitude
started to grow. One of the guys had Bradley's camera.
(23:06):
One of the guys had some of his clothes, you know,
they and they brought these gifts to me, and they
were treasures because they loved him so much. They wanted
They were like, I'll carry his stuff. So they were
there from November. I think they got home in April.
So they had to keep up with all his stuff
all that time over there. And that meant a lot
(23:27):
to me because I knew, I already knew he was
carrying an eighty pound bag at a pack and somebody
else cared enough to tug the rest of his crap
for all those days. At one hundred and thirty two,
degree heat. It made something that might have seemed insignificant,
even Huger. You know, it's like they suffered for this.
(23:49):
For me, I never dreamed to ever see these guys again.
And so it must have been the night after the
memorial service, were sitting in the hotel room and my
mom and all this his platoon dudes, and they said,
do you want us to reenact what happened to Bradley?
Do you want to know? I'm like, oh my god, yes,
(24:10):
I've hit the mega train. I'm gonna find out what happened.
So my mom, she must have been in her late seventies,
so I'm looking at her. I'm like, you hold this pillow.
If you cry, if you flinch, if you have one
sign of emotion, I'm gonna punch you in the face.
We cannot let them think we're gonna get upset. We
can't act scared. We're gonna listen. I don't want them
(24:33):
to shut up. I don't want to miss anything. I
was real serious. I'm like, don't you cry because Bradley
was she was his second mama. She loved that child.
So we get our pillows. They all exit the room,
you know, to get in whatever I don't know what
they did outside, and we brace ourselves and that come
(24:55):
in telling us how they were going down the roads
and kicking down the doors and meadows. He was pissed
at because he was a little taller and he could
cook doors higher, and they came up and better, and
so there's a competition, of course, like football, and you know,
I guess that's what you do and that's who you are.
And I don't know if he just went ahead of
them to kick in a door because he was one
(25:16):
behind or something, but it, you know, it wouldn't have
surprised me. And when they came in behind him, he
was just slumped in a corner. He wasn't bleeding, and
I like, get up, fairclough, get up, and he didn't move.
And at some point, you know, probably pretty quickly, they
realized he had been shot, and they started pursuing the guys,
(25:39):
who meant people who killed him, and in my memory,
they called in an air raid, but really they just
shot a rocket. And I was just happy, and they
looked at me and they're like, was that okay. I'm like,
oh my god, thank you, thank you for killing them.
I'm so glad. I don't have to hate somebody fictitiously,
they're dead. I'm good. Then one of them said, Bradley
(26:02):
was the hero of our patunit who killed more than anybody.
Some I'm sitting I'm like, oh my god, my son
went to hell. He's a mass murderer. I'm just sitting there.
So I finally had the guts to go, well, how
many people do you kill? And they said eight, And
I'm like, oh, he's fun. He's in heaven.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
But losing her only child was incredibly painful, and Kathleen
tried to self medicate with alcohol and pills. She now
takes us into some of that darkness and how she
began to see reason for hope.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That cloud of death. It would wait for me right
there so I could pretend I was happy. I might,
you know, I might be doing something fun. But that
cloud was right there, and all I had to do
was be steel and it just come right back over me.
(26:51):
I'm sorry for the people who had to be around
me then, because it was dark and it was ugly,
and I somehow survived. I'm not who I was twenty
years ago, and a friend I've known since I was thirteen.
It's a probabed three years after Bradley died. She said,
you know, you're a much better person since Bradley's been gone,
(27:15):
and I wanted to punch her in the face, but
in my heart, I knew she was right because I
wasn't a self centered, self motivated, greedy I actually thought
that the person in front of me doing twenty miles
an hour might be turning on the road where their
(27:37):
mom just died, and I didn't have to scream at them.
I could be patient and you know, maybe that person
is having the worst day of their life right now,
and you can be nice. As I started embracing the
things I had to be grateful for, the cloud had
(28:00):
to go. And it took a long time. Seven years
after Bradley's died, and I would still have these meltdown,
self destructive, I don't want to wake up in the morning.
Moments I was sitting in church, I would sneak in church,
I don't at anybody talk to me. And it was
but my turmoil was getting bigger than I could maintain
(28:21):
on the inside. And the whole stage was covered in
duffel bags and suitcases, so I knew what they looked
like getting Bradley's duble bag back. I wonder what is
this about, you know? So they put some backpack and
he said, you know, there's a lot of people that
carried this around in life. They got to pay their
house note, their car note, they pay their bills. This
(28:43):
is their load. It's nothing. They put it on the morn,
they go to work. They come home, they said. He
picks up two of these duffel bags. He said, but
a lot of y'all carry this. And I went, that's me,
because I thought I'd be all better. But I never
dealt with that. I just crammed it down and crammed
(29:05):
it down, and the little black cloud would come back.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
At the recent reunion, Kathleen learned that many members of
Bradley's company still feel immense guilt about his death. She
spoke of the pain she feels for what these men
continue to suffer years later, but in the process, she
also shared a very powerful moment in her own journey
following Bradley's death.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
No idea until this week that these guys held themselves
responsible for his death, and that ought not to be so.
And it's not going to stay that way because ei
they're not God be you do what you're told in
the Marines, and see the Bible says, I knew you
before you were born, before you were knit in your
mother's womb. I know your first breath, and I know
(29:51):
your last breath. So either God's God or he's a liar.
And so none of these guys were responsible for him.
None of them responsible for him. And I didn't know
they carried that because I walked through my guilt of
I should have kept him in college. I should you know,
I should have could have water, I should have could
(30:12):
have winder. I got over that, you know. I remember
the moment in time that God held my heart. His
funeral service, his only girlfriend from high school sang a cappello,
it is well with my soul. So you know, I
was back in church, and every time I heard that song,
I was just gut wrenched. I mean, just it's well
(30:35):
with my soul. No, the hell it isn't. It's not
well my soul. It's not well because I don't have
my son. It's not well. And I remember the Sunday
morning that I realized I was singing the song and
I did not have any sorrow, and it was well
with my soul. And I have never been sing and
(30:56):
you know, a whole lot of stuff unpacked between those
two points. But when I heard me singing and I
wasn't crying, and it was well with my soul, oh
oh wow, it was well with my soul. I just
I don't know what. I don't know how. I just
(31:18):
remember when these guys haven't had that. You know, I've
kept in contact with them. I go visit some of
their families. You know, I know, beyond the shadow of
a doubt, if I ever picked up the phone and
said I need can you, it would happen. I don't
care how big, how small. I know, beyond the shadow
(31:41):
of a doubt. For twenty years, they got my back.
And I don't know why, because I didn't deserve it,
but because of their brotherhood, they believe, they believe I'm
like I thought I'd never see him again. Why they
were with Bradley six months. I don't ever see these
people again. And you know a lot of them got redeployed,
(32:03):
a lot of them were injured, couldn't go back. I
just I never dreamed, never ever ever dreamed, ever dreamed
that they would be my family, they would be my kids.
I've walked them through girlfriend breakups, baby births, weddings and
who gets that? Now? Maybe everybody does. I don't know.
(32:26):
I got a gift. I got to ask come up here.
I couldn't figure out why. I'm like, that's bizarre. Why
would you do that? Why me? Why me? Why would I?
Why me? And you know, I haven't read Bradley's last
letter in a long time to this morning, but one
of the lines in it says, I want to do
something great. Maybe I'll maybe I'll earn a good metal
and it'll be important. I want people to remember me.
I want my life to have counted. I don't want
(32:48):
to die and be forgotten. And when I read that
this morning, I want honey, who knew? Who knew those brothers?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
When asked now how she looks back on Bradley's military service,
Kathleen Fairclough says her son was doing exactly what he
wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I honor his service, you know, I guess I'm thankful
that these guys fight for their brothers. You know, I
don't watch the news. I'm not politically affiliated. I think
everything we see and hear has got a motive behind it.
So what's really real? You know, these guys didn't go
out here because they were willing to risk their lives
(33:32):
for some political agenda, democratic Republic, whatever. That's not why
they fight for us. They fight for us because a
person sitting next to them they love and care about,
and they love their mom and daddy, and they hope
they have kids one day, and they want it to
be in a free country. That's why they fight for it.
And so I'm proud of Bradley that he not only
(33:54):
really fought for what he believed in. I got some
BBC footage of him in action from Paul Woods, which was,
you know, cust a lot and someone was really embarrassed.
But he's really a badass. So I was really proud.
I'm like, that is my son. Quit using that F word.
(34:14):
I was so proud. I don't know. I was just
elated to see he wasn't in the back corner going,
I mean, there's gunfire, think I'm want to stand back
here until all that's over. No, uh huh. And he was.
He was. He was a badass, you know, and I'm
proud of him. I'm proud that the bad part of
me kind of helped him be a stronger person. When
(34:37):
he needed to be.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That's Kathleen Fairclough. She is the gold Star mother of
US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Fairclock. Bradley was killed
in Iraq during the Second Battle of Fallujah in November
two thousand and four. He served in Alpha Company, first Battalion,
eighth Marines. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is better than schromic. Hi,
(35:10):
this is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:31):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans' Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth. She is the gold Star
mother of US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, who
was killed during the Second Battle of Fallujah on the
day after Thanksgiving in November two thousand and four. Bradley
served in Alpha Company, first Battalion, eighth Marines. Kathleen Faircloth
(00:36):
visited with us while she attended a reunion of her
son's Marine Corps company twenty years after Bradley's death. You'll
hear the full range of emotion, from laughter to tears
as Kathleen tells us about Bradley's childhood and his interest
in joining the military, how Marine Corps boot camp changed
her son, and her conversations with Bradley while he was deployed.
(00:58):
She also shares the awful day she learned learned he
had been killed, being at Dover Air Force Base to
receive his body, and then forging an unbreakable bond with
the men who fought alongside Bradley. Kathleen also shares her
own difficult journey following her son's death, how she's trying
to help members of his company who need to heal
and much more. Kathleen Faircloth was a single mom and
(01:22):
Bradley was her only child. She describes Bradley as a
skinny kid until he fell in love with football and
became a big, punishing linebacker, but he never had much
interest in the military until terrorists attacked our nation during
his senior year in high school.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
He did not until not to eleven. And so I
got home from work that day and probably I really
still didn't believe it had happened, because I was at
work at a place that didn't have radio or television
when I got the phone call, No, this is not happening.
You know that I did not see any of the
video that rest of America was and I just thought, no,
(02:01):
this is I'm the Queen of denial too. This didn't
didn't happen. So I get home and Bradley's like, I'm
joining the military. I'm like, oh, no, You're going to
college his senior that year, and he's like, no, I'm
going to go fight for my country. And he said,
I'm the only guy in my class that wanted to
do that. And I'm like, it's because you're crazy. And
so that triggered. I think him watching it because they
(02:24):
had TVs in school, and so once it happened, every
classroom was watching it, and I think in Bradley he was.
He interpreted it as hell, no, this is not going
to happen. This is not going to happen, and he
wanted to go and that triggered his desire to serve
(02:44):
in the military.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Did you need to sign off on that?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
He didn't join then, So he loved football more than
he wanted to go in the Marine Corps. So he
got a scholarship, went to school at Delta State, Mississippi,
and came home on break and was riding his bike
because he had to keep his body, you know, it's important,
and some Marine recruiter was across the street and hollered
(03:08):
at him, hey boy, you want to join the Marines,
and he enlisted. So he comes home and he's like,
I'm going to get my physical this weekend. I joined
the Marines. I'm like, no, you didn't, because I didn't
say you could, and I'm sure enough I didn't have
to say he could. He was old enough.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
How soon was it that he was off to boot camp?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Boot camp? He went in two days to get his physical,
so that would have been summer. Pretty quickly. It was
hot there, so from summer to boot camp it was
still hot, so pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Did he have time to correspond with you, let you
know what he thought of being a marine for real?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yes. His first correspondence was, I think I should tell
the truth because I think they know some of the
stuff I've done. So he broke his back playing football,
but he he didn't want anybody to know because he
didn't want to beat not qualified to Jordan Rings and
I'm like, Bradley, they're gonna know. He's like, I don't
(04:06):
think they're gonna know. He got arrested maybe a week
before he left for boot camp, and so he really
thought he could cover that up because being quaint of
denial makes children who can deny also, And he's like, yeah,
don't tell, just you don't tell them. So I think
I got a phone call. No, you can't call home
from boot camp. I must have got a letter that
said I think I need to tell the truth. They're
(04:28):
interrogating me, and I think they know. I'm like, yes, idiot,
they know there's a record. So he went from presidential security.
That is what he was enlisted as to infantry, probably
because he's stupid. I'm like, if you're gonna be a criminal,
be a smart criminal. I'm gonna be a stupid criminal.
But anyway, yeah, we have standards.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Was your reaction, your apprehension to him serving in the
wake of nine to eleven different than it would have
been if he had wanted to do it before.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Nine to eleven. I don't remember being afraid through the
boot camp thing, because once kind of transitioned into making
peace about it and went to his graduation. That man
that was at boot camp was not the guy that
left my house. I saw where he was the narcissistic cocky.
(05:19):
It's all about me, you know. I need to hear
my football number called on the stadium speakers, and I
need to make sure the camera saw me make that move.
So under the that behavior, we painted up the suv
going to boot camp graduation with Bradley and blah blah blah,
And when he saw it, he freaked out. He's like,
(05:41):
you have got to get that off of the truck
right now. I'm part of a team and a unit,
and nobody stands out any better than anybody else. And
at that moment, I wasn't my kid anymore, you know,
he changed. It's different. It was better. He was purpose
(06:02):
driven and it wasn't all about what I want and
how good am I? And it was about his team.
Now he loved his football player buddies like the Marine
Corps gave him that purpose and made him part of
something bigger than he was. And he loved it. And
(06:22):
I loved that he loved it because I saw it
change him.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
He's been described by a couple of these guys as
a Marine's marine. What is it about the Marine Corps
that you think he.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Loves so much? I think Bradley would still be in
the Marines he liked it so much. I would have
seen him as a lifer because I would tell people
drill sergeants would not have affected him because he was
raised by his psycho crazy mom. I'm like boot caming
nothing from Bradley. You know, he's lived in boot camp,
(06:53):
but he really had lived in boot camp, but not
with the structure and purpose, just with the insanity of
being tell what to do, and the respect he had
for even the drill sergeants and the people who made
him do things he didn't like doing. And he he
was raised not to be a quitter, so he never thought, well,
(07:13):
this is hard.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Now as he moved into marine infantry, given what's happening
in the world, he knows and I'm sure you know
that he's going to be deployed at some point.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
No, because I already told you I'm the Queen of Denial,
so you know that'll be somebody else's kid. You know,
he'd already told me I want to fight for this country,
so it wasn't at least he probably volunteered that if
heybody knew, yes, I'll go. I'll go over there right
in the middle and give me a gun. But I
never contemplated any of that. When I that's probably not true.
(07:47):
It's really hard to connect to those feelings. Honestly, vividly
see him walking away from my car the last time
I laid eyes on him at Campell. Jane know, when
he was leaving in the morning. We were a family
that didn't cry, so it wasn't like We're gonna boohoo
and be all sappy and crap. No, And I was
waiting for him to turn around. I'm gripping the steering wheel,
(08:10):
knowing this might be the last time, and he probably
walked twenty maybe thirty feet away, and I'm like getting
a little agitated, because if they love you, you know, they
turn around. It's with the movies too, they turn around,
Look they love you. And so I'm waiting and he
turns around and he gave him that wave and I
got a picture of it, and I knew he was
(08:32):
ready for whatever. And I got to meet some of
the guys. I don't remember anybody but Evan Matthews, and
I saw he was part of something bigger than him,
and I saw that these guys were willing to go
and fight for what they believed was freedom.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
How frequently were you able to stay in touch? If
you were able to stay in touch once he.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Got over there, probably once a month I would get
a phone call. So I was It's nothing uncommon to
see people with cell phones now, but back then I
did not let it depart from my side. And when
he left for boot camp, I had gone outside at
some point and he called from the room they made
it to in Montgomery, I believe, and he left a
(09:15):
message I still have on my voicemail. Well, I guess
you don't care that I've gone off to boot camp.
You can't even answer the phone. Thanks a lot, Mom,
And I caused back, well, I've been room so and so,
and here's the number. And so I now that he
had gone through boot camp and was I kept my
phone beside me. I was learning to take good orders,
and I got letters because I mailed him. At boot
(09:38):
camp he could mail letters. But once he got deployed,
you can mail stuff. It was always gatorade. I don't
know why that's stuck in my head. But I would
get the list and i'd go get it and then
go to the post office and mail it. And then
of course you wonder in six months or they actually
I get this. So you had to keep it going
pretty regular, so that the trend, because it's not like
it took a long time to get stuff back back
(10:00):
and forth. So I would know if something was not
received correctly to his wishes. Anyway, Yeah, I didn't get
phone calls. He called me. It seemed like once a month.
It wasn't regular, but it just it's like that was
all that was important. I stopped everything. To HER's voice.
(10:24):
He called on November the seventeenth to wish his niece
happy birthday, and he said, I got I got injured
yesterday And it was like you said, you know, I
got injured yesterday and no big deal, blah blah blah.
And I was like, okay, oh, and don't tell anybody
I called you today. So I'm like, all right, top secret,
I got this. So when they called to tell me
he had been injured, like have you talked to your son,
(10:44):
I'm like, huh, who, what do you mean? You know,
I'm not sure I can confirm or deny that, sir.
What was the question again? And I said, did he
conte who was injured? And I said, well yeah, And
I'm like, okay, you know. And so that was the
second time. I think those are the first and the
(11:05):
second time it had gotten injured. So yeah, he called sometimes.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Did you know he was in Fallujah when he called you?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh? Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I slip with my
phone right beside my face, because there's usually three or
four o'clock in the morning when he would get phone
liberty for you know, three minutes or something, and you
didn't want to miss it because it may be another
three or four weeks before you get another phone call.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
That's Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star mother of US Marine Cora
Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, who was killed in Fallujah in
November two thousand and four. When we come back, she
shares the day she found out he had been killed.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Sixty seconds of Service.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
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Speaker 1 (12:51):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star, mother of US
Marine Corp. Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth. He was killed in
Fallujah in Iraq in November two thousand and four. Kathleen
now takes us to the day she learned her son
had been killed, which followed at least two previous injuries.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
The second time he had gotten injured, the guy had
called me from Campbell Jeane and he said, we're going
to get Bradley to call you. Well that was Wednesday,
and he didn't call. And Thursday came and he didn't call.
And so I was becoming a very unpleasant person to
be around to everyone because all I wanted to get
(13:39):
was the phone call. It wasn't nothing, Da da dah.
I'm fine, and it just didn't come. It didn't come.
So Friday after Thanksgiving, I needed to escape my insanity
of waiting and being mean to people because I was
(13:59):
just mean everybody. And I went to the hunting camp
and got the phone positioned in the window sill so
it had a bar so I could hear it, you know,
just in case, and I kind of come down off
that high alert status of maybe not, maybe not. He's busy,
He's why he's not calling. Well, he was busy. But
(14:22):
so I started driving home once when I got the
phone call of the same guy at campl shoon and
God blessed them for having to make those phone calls.
You know, he's because I knew him then, you know,
I'm like, all right, dude. The second time he called
and he said he was injured, and I'm like, well,
how did you get back on the field if he
was injured a week ago? I don't understand. We don't
have any information. I'm like, thanks a lot, I guess.
(14:46):
And so the second call I got from him was
about six point thirty in the morning. I just grabbed
the door knobbed to walk out and I the number
pops up and I just hit the ground and he's like,
that's fair cloth. I'm like, yes, remember's name. He said,
Bradley's been injured again, and I'm like, is it bad?
I don't think so. I don't have any information, you know,
(15:07):
it's okay, and I'm so I want, you know, so
here we are Friday, and when he calls, I want
to say his name was, I don't know. I called
him by name and I said, he said, where are you?
I said, I'm driving. He said, do you need somebody
to come drive you? I said no, I said, it's Bradley. Okay.
(15:28):
He said, I'm not at liberty to tell you that.
Are you on your way home? And I'm like, that's
what you need to tell him, dude, that's it. I got
it because the last thing I wanted was to get
him in trouble. And I knew. I just knew, and
had to drive home. So I was driving about one
hundred and ten miles an hour down these little podunk
(15:50):
country roads, flying trying to call my family. Bradley's been killed.
Bradley's been killed. I just I knew. And I get
to the road I live on, and it was like
my little outer body person was saying, you realize you're
in a hurry to go home to find out your
son's dead. And I just kind of melted, took my
(16:15):
foot off the gas and went, oh yeah, okay. So
I don't know how I got from there to there.
I drove to my house and seeing the Marines and
dress blues is a fierce, striking moment, but it's also
awe and honor because they're they're something to look at,
(16:36):
you know, they're impressive, they're of course they're bigger than me.
Was two guys and a female officer person, and I knew,
I came on, it's time for you to act like
the mother of marine, you know. And I did and
didn't cry, and I let them read their letter and
(16:58):
hand me my flag. And I got Bradley's letter I'd
gotten probably that week that said if I get hurt again,
you need to call all my friends and tell them
what's going on so they know I'm fighting. Because he
wanted to everybody he knew walk up to him, stick
his finger in their chest and said, I'm fighting for you,
fighting for you. And he was still a little egotistical.
(17:20):
He tell everybody I got hurt. So I got on
the phone, called him. All was Thanksgiving weekend and they
were home for college from college and they're at my
house thirty minutes or less, you know, thirty or forty kids.
And the process began, you know, of how do I
(17:42):
honor my son died? I don't do that, So none
of that was really real. It was just do what
you're supposed to do. Do your military, you do what
honors this process. And Bradley, we didn't. I didn't let
him cry as a kid, so I didn't. It was
not gonna cry because I thought that would be disgraceful.
(18:04):
And there were other mothers in the media acting like
psychopaths because their kids had gotten killed. I'm like, wasn't
a draft. Your son volunteered. Apparently he wanted to go
into the military, and you're going to dishonor his death
by blaming somebody that had no control over it. So
(18:28):
I was not going to be that parent. But that
next morning, when I woke up, I walked to the
coffee pot and I reached up to grab the coffee.
That's why I name my son died that moment, not
the night before because I was on my to do list,
but that moment, I na my son was dead.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
That's Kathleen Faircloth, gold star mother of US Marine Corps
Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth, killed in Fellujah in two thousand
and four. When We Come Back, Kathleen Faircloth explains how
she became family with the men of Alpha Company, First Battalion,
eighth Marines, and she will share some of the powerful
(19:07):
moments that helped to pull her out of her very
deep grief. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Kathleen Faircloth, gold Star, mother of US
Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Faircloth. He was killed in
(19:28):
Iraq during the Second Battle of Fallujah in two thousand
and four. Kathleen now picks up her story with her
memories of receiving her son's body as it returned home.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
So then you wait for a week to get his body,
So then you should go to bed every night going okay.
So did they blow his head off? Did they blow
his arms left? Did he have a you know, well,
I see his face. So I lived out his death
all that time until we got his body off the
(19:59):
plane from Dover and they almost dropped him, which was
hilarious because, you know, because I thought Bradley was so big,
you know, he was too big for these kinds. I'm like, police, Jesus,
don't let him roll out on the tarmac. It might
I may not be able to hold it. Together because
it was all about holding it together. And they did,
(20:20):
and I was like, oh, thank god, because I don't
want people to see him and crying. I didn't want
I didn't want to fall apart. I might have been
crazy if they if he'd have flopped out, I don't know.
So I got to the cemetery of the mortuary funeral
home and I got to see him, and like he
was all there, So I was really I got to
see him, you know. I didn't realize what a gift
(20:41):
that was because a lot of parents didn't get to
see him again.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
But it was a few months later at her son's
memorial service at Camp La June, that Kathleen met the
man of Bradley's company, learned what happened to her son,
and built unbreakable bonds with those men.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
So then they planned the memorial service in April at
Camp Jeanne, and I was excited to see the guys
he was with. I hadn't met him, I didn't know him.
I just wanted to see him. I wanted something I
could touch. The flag was great, but it was empty,
(21:16):
you know. I could hold that flag and it represented
what he died for, but it wasn't him. I needed
flesh and blood. I need something I could touch, And
my mom went with me and I met James Shaeffer.
That was at the Marine Corps home office at that point.
There was no seating room in the cafeteria, and he said,
(21:39):
have a seat. He said, why are you here? I
told him, he said, I said, I just want to
know what happened to my son. He said, you need
to meet the guys who fought with him. I did.
I got to meet them and they're still my children today,
every one of them.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
How do you put that into words, what it's like
to meet the people who were with him, the people
he wanted to be with at such a difficult time.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well, the first two I saw, I think it was
two or three in the morning, because we drove seventeen
hours and I was tired, and I had become very
good at self medicating with alcohol and I needed to drink.
So I get out of the car, like I need
a drink? How are you? And it's Nate Fox and
he's like, oh, thank god, let's greet one of those.
(22:25):
And he said, you know, I really had to fight
to get to be the one to come and meet you.
At the gate, and I was like, wow, I felt
so honored that that was important to them and not
to just one person. But I don't know how he
got to be the one. I just looked at it.
I just fell in love with him, you know. And
(22:45):
so the next day we went to the memorial service.
Have sketchy memories, but I remember sitting in that huge
room with twenty one families, and I had my guys
around me, so we're My grief was humongous. My gratitude
started to grow. One of the guys had Bradley's camera.
(23:06):
One of the guys had some of his clothes, you know,
they and they brought these gifts to me, and they
were treasures because they loved him so much. They wanted
They were like, I'll carry his stuff. So they were
there from November. I think they got home in April.
So they had to keep up with all his stuff
all that time over there. And that meant a lot
(23:27):
to me because I knew, I already knew he was
carrying an eighty pound bag at a pack and somebody
else cared enough to tug the rest of his crap
for all those days. At one hundred and thirty two,
degree heat. It made something that might have seemed insignificant,
even Huger. You know, it's like they suffered for this.
(23:49):
For me, I never dreamed to ever see these guys again.
And so it must have been the night after the
memorial service, were sitting in the hotel room and my
mom and all this his platoon dudes, and they said,
do you want us to reenact what happened to Bradley?
Do you want to know? I'm like, oh my god, yes,
(24:10):
I've hit the mega train. I'm gonna find out what happened.
So my mom, she must have been in her late seventies,
so I'm looking at her. I'm like, you hold this pillow.
If you cry, if you flinch, if you have one
sign of emotion, I'm gonna punch you in the face.
We cannot let them think we're gonna get upset. We
can't act scared. We're gonna listen. I don't want them
(24:33):
to shut up. I don't want to miss anything. I
was real serious. I'm like, don't you cry because Bradley
was she was his second mama. She loved that child.
So we get our pillows. They all exit the room,
you know, to get in whatever I don't know what
they did outside, and we brace ourselves and that come
(24:55):
in telling us how they were going down the roads
and kicking down the doors and meadows. He was pissed
at because he was a little taller and he could
cook doors higher, and they came up and better, and
so there's a competition, of course, like football, and you know,
I guess that's what you do and that's who you are.
And I don't know if he just went ahead of
them to kick in a door because he was one
(25:16):
behind or something, but it, you know, it wouldn't have
surprised me. And when they came in behind him, he
was just slumped in a corner. He wasn't bleeding, and
I like, get up, fairclough, get up, and he didn't move.
And at some point, you know, probably pretty quickly, they
realized he had been shot, and they started pursuing the guys,
(25:39):
who meant people who killed him, and in my memory,
they called in an air raid, but really they just
shot a rocket. And I was just happy, and they
looked at me and they're like, was that okay. I'm like,
oh my god, thank you, thank you for killing them.
I'm so glad. I don't have to hate somebody fictitiously,
they're dead. I'm good. Then one of them said, Bradley
(26:02):
was the hero of our patunit who killed more than anybody.
Some I'm sitting I'm like, oh my god, my son
went to hell. He's a mass murderer. I'm just sitting there.
So I finally had the guts to go, well, how
many people do you kill? And they said eight, And
I'm like, oh, he's fun. He's in heaven.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
But losing her only child was incredibly painful, and Kathleen
tried to self medicate with alcohol and pills. She now
takes us into some of that darkness and how she
began to see reason for hope.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That cloud of death. It would wait for me right
there so I could pretend I was happy. I might,
you know, I might be doing something fun. But that
cloud was right there, and all I had to do
was be steel and it just come right back over me.
(26:51):
I'm sorry for the people who had to be around
me then, because it was dark and it was ugly,
and I somehow survived. I'm not who I was twenty
years ago, and a friend I've known since I was thirteen.
It's a probabed three years after Bradley died. She said,
you know, you're a much better person since Bradley's been gone,
(27:15):
and I wanted to punch her in the face, but
in my heart, I knew she was right because I
wasn't a self centered, self motivated, greedy I actually thought
that the person in front of me doing twenty miles
an hour might be turning on the road where their
(27:37):
mom just died, and I didn't have to scream at them.
I could be patient and you know, maybe that person
is having the worst day of their life right now,
and you can be nice. As I started embracing the
things I had to be grateful for, the cloud had
(28:00):
to go. And it took a long time. Seven years
after Bradley's died, and I would still have these meltdown,
self destructive, I don't want to wake up in the morning.
Moments I was sitting in church, I would sneak in church,
I don't at anybody talk to me. And it was
but my turmoil was getting bigger than I could maintain
(28:21):
on the inside. And the whole stage was covered in
duffel bags and suitcases, so I knew what they looked
like getting Bradley's duble bag back. I wonder what is
this about, you know? So they put some backpack and
he said, you know, there's a lot of people that
carried this around in life. They got to pay their
house note, their car note, they pay their bills. This
(28:43):
is their load. It's nothing. They put it on the morn,
they go to work. They come home, they said. He
picks up two of these duffel bags. He said, but
a lot of y'all carry this. And I went, that's me,
because I thought I'd be all better. But I never
dealt with that. I just crammed it down and crammed
(29:05):
it down, and the little black cloud would come back.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
At the recent reunion, Kathleen learned that many members of
Bradley's company still feel immense guilt about his death. She
spoke of the pain she feels for what these men
continue to suffer years later, but in the process, she
also shared a very powerful moment in her own journey
following Bradley's death.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
No idea until this week that these guys held themselves
responsible for his death, and that ought not to be so.
And it's not going to stay that way because ei
they're not God be you do what you're told in
the Marines, and see the Bible says, I knew you
before you were born, before you were knit in your
mother's womb. I know your first breath, and I know
(29:51):
your last breath. So either God's God or he's a liar.
And so none of these guys were responsible for him.
None of them responsible for him. And I didn't know
they carried that because I walked through my guilt of
I should have kept him in college. I should you know,
I should have could have water, I should have could
(30:12):
have winder. I got over that, you know. I remember
the moment in time that God held my heart. His
funeral service, his only girlfriend from high school sang a cappello,
it is well with my soul. So you know, I
was back in church, and every time I heard that song,
I was just gut wrenched. I mean, just it's well
(30:35):
with my soul. No, the hell it isn't. It's not
well my soul. It's not well because I don't have
my son. It's not well. And I remember the Sunday
morning that I realized I was singing the song and
I did not have any sorrow, and it was well
with my soul. And I have never been sing and
(30:56):
you know, a whole lot of stuff unpacked between those
two points. But when I heard me singing and I
wasn't crying, and it was well with my soul, oh
oh wow, it was well with my soul. I just
I don't know what. I don't know how. I just
(31:18):
remember when these guys haven't had that. You know, I've
kept in contact with them. I go visit some of
their families. You know, I know, beyond the shadow of
a doubt, if I ever picked up the phone and
said I need can you, it would happen. I don't
care how big, how small. I know, beyond the shadow
(31:41):
of a doubt. For twenty years, they got my back.
And I don't know why, because I didn't deserve it,
but because of their brotherhood, they believe, they believe I'm
like I thought I'd never see him again. Why they
were with Bradley six months. I don't ever see these
people again. And you know a lot of them got redeployed,
(32:03):
a lot of them were injured, couldn't go back. I
just I never dreamed, never ever ever dreamed, ever dreamed
that they would be my family, they would be my kids.
I've walked them through girlfriend breakups, baby births, weddings and
who gets that? Now? Maybe everybody does. I don't know.
(32:26):
I got a gift. I got to ask come up here.
I couldn't figure out why. I'm like, that's bizarre. Why
would you do that? Why me? Why me? Why would I?
Why me? And you know, I haven't read Bradley's last
letter in a long time to this morning, but one
of the lines in it says, I want to do
something great. Maybe I'll maybe I'll earn a good metal
and it'll be important. I want people to remember me.
I want my life to have counted. I don't want
(32:48):
to die and be forgotten. And when I read that
this morning, I want honey, who knew? Who knew those brothers?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
When asked now how she looks back on Bradley's military service,
Kathleen Fairclough says her son was doing exactly what he
wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I honor his service, you know, I guess I'm thankful
that these guys fight for their brothers. You know, I
don't watch the news. I'm not politically affiliated. I think
everything we see and hear has got a motive behind it.
So what's really real? You know, these guys didn't go
out here because they were willing to risk their lives
(33:32):
for some political agenda, democratic Republic, whatever. That's not why
they fight for us. They fight for us because a
person sitting next to them they love and care about,
and they love their mom and daddy, and they hope
they have kids one day, and they want it to
be in a free country. That's why they fight for it.
And so I'm proud of Bradley that he not only
(33:54):
really fought for what he believed in. I got some
BBC footage of him in action from Paul Woods, which was,
you know, cust a lot and someone was really embarrassed.
But he's really a badass. So I was really proud.
I'm like, that is my son. Quit using that F word.
(34:14):
I was so proud. I don't know. I was just
elated to see he wasn't in the back corner going,
I mean, there's gunfire, think I'm want to stand back
here until all that's over. No, uh huh. And he was.
He was. He was a badass, you know, and I'm
proud of him. I'm proud that the bad part of
me kind of helped him be a stronger person. When
(34:37):
he needed to be.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
That's Kathleen Fairclough. She is the gold Star mother of
US Marine Corps Lance Corporal Bradley Fairclock. Bradley was killed
in Iraq during the Second Battle of Fallujah in November
two thousand and four. He served in Alpha Company, first Battalion,
eighth Marines. I'm Greg Corumbus, and this is better than schromic. Hi,
(35:10):
this is Greg Corumbus and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:31):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of course,
please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join us
next time for Veterans Chronicles
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