Family Lashes Out

As the families of two missing soldiers waited to hear from the U.S. military Tuesday, the uncle of one lashed out at the government, saying it didn't do enough to bring the men home safe.
"Because the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life," Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, told NBC's "Today" show.
Earlier Tuesday, a senior Iraqi military official announced that the bodies of the two missing soldiers had been found.
U.S. military officials would not confirm the report Tuesday morning. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the military had "an obligation first and foremost to those families who have either lost or have someone missing."
Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, was sobbing when she answered the door of her Brownsville, Texas, home.
Her niece, Felipa Gomez, said the family had been watching television news reports of the Iraqi military announcement about the bodies but were still waiting for U.S. military officials to talk with them.
The report that the soldiers had been found came from Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, who announced that the bodies of Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Army Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore., had been discovered on a street in Youssifiyah, just south of Baghdad.
The two soldiers had been manning checkpoints when they were attacked Friday. Another soldier with them was killed.
A group that includes al-Qaida in
Iraq claimed Monday it had kidnapped the two soldiers, but it did not name them and the U.S. military was skeptical of the claim. The group posted another statement found on the Internet Tuesday saying it killed them.
"I think the U.S. government was too slow to react to this," MacKenzie said Tuesday. "They should have had a plan in place."
MacKenzie said the government should have offered a $100 million reward and offered to exchange mujahideen detainees for the soldiers' lives. It seized enough money from
Saddam Hussein to afford it, he said.
The military has said more than 8,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops were searching for the missing men.
In Madras, Ore., Tucker's hometown, yellow ribbons adorn the trees and store reader boards offer prayers of hope for his safe return.
Tucker's relatives declined interviews but released the text of a phone message Monday that Tucker recently left on an answering machine, telling his mother to be proud of him.
"I'm defending my country," Tucker says on the recording. "Tell sis and my nephews hello for me, I'm OK, I'm on my way."
The family said in a statement Monday that their son had joined the military because he wanted to "do something positive." They also sent their sympathy to the family of Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., who was killed in the attack.
Lyndsay Kowaleski, a high school classmate of Tucker's, described "a sense of helplessness" after learning Tucker was missing.
"Our hearts are broken with our friend being in this situation," she said