STAR PRESS STORY FOR SCOTT ZUBOWSKI

'He gave himself for us, and we can’t forget'By JOY LEIKERjleiker@muncie.gannett.com


NEW CASTLE — Marines arrived on Barbara Weitzel’s doorstep around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“My first question was, which one?”Two sons are Marines. Both are in Iraq.
ADVERTISEMENT



“They said Scott’s name and I quit listening,” Weitzel said Monday from the home she and her husband Greg share in New Castle.Lance Cpl. Scott Zubowski, 20, was one of two soldiers killed Saturday near Fallujah when a roadside bomb exploded underneath the vehicle he was riding in.

He was a rear passenger in the vehicle that carried five soldiers. Another was killed. One received serious injury, and the two others were slightly injured.It was Zubowski’s second tour of duty in Iraq.His older brother, Sgt. David Zubowski, 26, now is on his way back to Indiana for his younger brother’s funeral.Services will be held in North Manchester, the town where Scott Zubowski got married in December and where he attended school from the eighth grade through high school. His father, Richard Zubowski, lives in North Manchester.
The family will meet tuesday to begin making arrangements. No funeral date has been set.

His wife Klancey (Eberly) Zubowski, 19, a native of North Manchester, survives. The couple lived on a military base in Twentynine Palms, Calif.Weitzel held back tears Monday as members of the media lined up in the street outside her home for interviews. Just inside the front door, framed photographs were on display, one from Scott’s wedding last December and another that showed him in his formal military uniform.She also pulled a snapshot off the refrigerator. Dated Aug. 4, 1990, the photo shows her three sons — David, Brian and Scott — in full military gear at Grissom Air Force Base. At the time the boys were 10, 9 and 5 years old.“I just love it,” she said as she stared at the photograph, ignoring the next television news crew that waited outside. “You know, it was just yesterday I had these kids.”Zubowski didn’t grow up dreaming of becoming a soldier, but his interest turned to the military after his big brother David joined the Marines. The military gave her oldest son confidence, and Weitzel said she knows Scott noticed a change in his big brother.

Despite her son’s death in a war that has brought criticism of President George Bush’s administration, Weitzel said she doesn’t regret her son’s choice to join the Marines during wartime.“He was doing his job. He volunteered. He knew exactly what he was doing,” she said. “I raised my kids to be who they are. I would hope I would never interfere. He served our country honorably.”

The family moved to New Castle in 1991. Zubowski attended Greenstreet Elementary School for his first and second grade years, and then was selected to be part of New Castle Community Schools’ gifted-and-talent program at Sunnyside Elementary. He, along with other top students, was part of a small group that studied together from the third through sixth grades.Linda Kinnett, in her 18th year as principal of Sunnyside, said Monday that Zubowski’s excellence as a student made him stand out from other students who have walked through the school’s doors. Zubowski was the first soldier killed who was a former student, Kinnett said.“He was a fine young student. I definitely remember him,” Kinnett said. “You feel terrible about it. It affects the whole school. Teachers who did have him here, they’re just sick about it. It’s too bad when a fine young man like that is taken when we just can’t understand it.”

Chris Miller was one of Zubowski’s classmates at Sunnyside. He’s now a student at Purdue University.“All the best stories about him revolve around who he was, and it’s impossible to describe him using a bunch of adjectives,” Miller wrote in an e-mail to The Star Press. “Not only was he the smartest guy I’ve ever known, he was unique in a way for which words aren’t good enough to actually describe who he was.“But to those of us who knew him and were his friends, his presence made a profound impact in our lives that still continues to shape us today.”

If it’s up to Brenda Grider, all of New Castle and East Central Indiana will have an opportunity to honor the fallen soldier. Though she doesn’t know Zubowski or his family, the secretary at the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New Castle hopes to coordinate a public memorial service out of respect for his military service.“It’s been like years, probably lots of years since someone here has been killed in the line of duty,” Grider said. “When I heard about it, I just decided I wanted to do something.”Grider said the VFW will schedule a memorial service sometime after the soldier’s funeral in North Manchester.Zubowski joined the Marines weeks after he graduated from Manchester High School in 2003. His two tours of Iraq covered about 12 months total — from February through October of 2004 and from July 4 until his death Saturday.“He gave himself for us, and we can’t forget,” his mother said. “I will never speak badly of the military because that would dishonor him. I will never speak badly of the country because that would dishonor him. He sacrificed. I will never speak badly about Scott and what he did.”

Contact Henry and Randolph county reporter Joy Leiker at 213-5825.
Originally published November 14, 2005