http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories...8349&ran=22767
Three slain Blackwater workers identified
By JOANNE KIMBERLIN, The Virginian-Pilot
© April 2, 2004
Special ops guys live their lives under the radar.
They die that way as well ? unless their families choose otherwise.
On Thursday, Blackwater Security Consulting refused to release the identities of its four employees killed and mutilated Wednesday in Iraq.
The Moyock, N.C.-based company said its decision was made to protect the privacy of the families of those killed.
By Thursday night, three families had come forward to publicly acknowledge the loss of their sons. The three men have been identified as Jerry Zovko of Ohio, Michael Teague of Tennessee, and Scott Helvenston of Florida. Zovko and Teague were with the Army?s airborne special forces before joining Blackwater.
Helvenston was a Navy SEAL.
[...]
The four ambushed Wednesday were said to be escorting food shipments in the Fallujah area, about 30 miles west of Baghdad.
[...]
?They?re not like little boys who suddenly want to go home because they didn?t expect this,? Smith said. ?All of them ? myself included ? worked for the federal government before this. We?ve been taking these risks for years. We accept them.? Zovko?s mother said she and her husband had suspected that their son might be among the dead, and their fears were confirmed Thursday morning when Gary Jackson, the president of Blackwater USA, knocked on the door of their Willoughby, Ohio, home.
?It was the hardest day of my life,? Donna Zovko said during an interview in her suburban Cleveland home. ?Jerry was a man with a principle, an idea.
He loved people. He wanted the world to be without borders, for everybody to be free and safe.?
Zovko?s family wouldn?t say whether he was married or had children.
Jerry Zovko joined the Army in 1991 at age 19. He was a member of the special forces in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, his brother, Tom Zovko, said.
Teague, of Clarksville, Tenn., was a 12-year Army veteran who earned a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan and also served in Panama and Grenada, his wife, Rhonda, said in a prepared statement.
She called her husband a ?proud father, soldier and American.?
Teague was a member of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ? known as the Nightstalkers ? out of Clarksville, Tenn. Teague had worked in the security business since he left the Army six years ago, but he joined Blackwater Security only two months ago, WTVF-TV of Nashville reported.
Helvenston was identified by a family spokesperson who said the family would comment today.
Helvenston lived in Leesburg, Fla., before joining the Navy when he was 17. He served with the Navy SEALs for 12 years and later worked as a fitness promoter, starting a company called Amphibian Athletics.
He also was an actor and stunt man for movies including ?G.I. Jane,? according to a company Web site.
[...]