Worry 'part of life' for LI troops, kin

Lance Cpl. Anthony Mercado had just returned home to Bellport from a seven-month combat tour in Afghanistan Saturday when he learned of the worst battlefield disaster in America's 10-year war there.

A helicopter bearing 30 U.S. troops was shot down early Saturday in a valley west of Kabul, killing all aboard.

Mercado said that, while tragic, the attack would not influence how he would feel about being sent to war there again.

"You can't not think that things like that will happen in a war zone," said Mercado, 22, a Bellport High School graduate and tank driver based in California. "Stuff like that just happens."

Across Long Island, people who have fought in Afghanistan or who are about to go said the latest battlefield loss was a tragic part of war but had not changed their view of the U.S. presence there.

"When you're over there, you just try not to think about that too much," said Mercado, who served with D Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division. "You can't really look at the bad stuff. You just have to put that aside and keep going or you're going to get hurt."

Cynthia Ventura, president of the Long Island chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America, said tragedies like Saturday's spread tension among families of troops serving in Afghanistan.

"It definitely beefs up the worry, but it's just a part of life for us," said Ventura, whose group offers emotional support to mothers of deployed troops.

Until Saturday, the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan was June 28, 2005, when 19 troops, including Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue, were killed near the Pakistan border.

Saturday's grim tally brings into sharp focus the dilemma facing military leaders as they try to balance plans by the White House to reduce the size of U.S. forces there with the desire to avoid leaving Afghanistan an unstable danger to the troops who will remain until the scheduled end of U.S. involvement in 2014.

The crash's high toll could renew criticism from some circles that President Barack Obama's decision earlier this year to speed the withdrawal of troops jeopardizes the lives of those still deployed in Afghanistan. One of the architects of the 2007 Iraq surge, retired Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane, warned in testimony in Congress last month that the troop drawdown "has increased risk significantly and threatens overall mission success."

Ventura said she would prefer to have the troops return home immediately but does not think that is likely.

"This shows you how much danger these kids are in," Ventura said. "But we can't bad-mouth the government. We just have to support these kids and celebrate when they come home."

With Ali Eaves