obits: Mayes, Christina and Beverly Clark, Indiana County, PA SUBJECT: Christine Mayes & Beverly Clark SUBMITTER: Marta Norton EMAIL: DATE: Sep 11, 1999 PASSWORD> SURNAMES: Mayes, Clark, Rathbun-Nealy, Mitchell The Denver Post Newspaper Thursday, Feb. 28, 1991, Page 2A FIRST 2 FEAMLE GI'S DIE IN WAR Scud missile kiss rural Pa. soldiers Denver Post Wire Service ROCHESTER MILLS, PA - Christine Mayes got engaged the day she left for the gulf war, and gave her ring to her fiance for safekeeping. Beverly Clark left a job ina door-and-window plant to serve overseas. Their relatives learned yesterday the women, both from rural Indiana County in western Pennsylvania, were the first American female soldiers reported killed in the war with Iraq. "She was proud to serve her country. She wanted to go to do what she could," said Mayes' mother, Darlene. Meyes, 22 of Rochester Mills, and Clark, 23 of Armagh died when an Iraqi Scud missile leveled their barracks Monday in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Twenty-six other soldiers were killed in the attack, and 89 were injured, the Army said. A combination of bad weather, smoke and burning oilfields confused early-warning satellites and prevented Patriot milliles from being launched in time to distroy the scud, a knowledgeable U.S. official said last night. The official said two heat-sensing satellites detected the plume of the Scud as it was being launced but erroneously interpreted it as a fire. Both wonem were specialists in the 14th Quartermaster Detachment, an Army Reserve water purificaion unit based in Greensburg. the 99th Army Reserves Command of suburban Pittsburgh said yesterday at least 11 members of the 14th died in the Scud attack. Spec. Melissa Rathbun-Nealy, 20, of Grand Rapids, Mich., is listed by the Pentagon as missing in action. The Pentagon last night released the name of another of the women killed in the attack, Spc. Adrienne L. Mitchel, 20, of Mereno Valley, Calif. Mrs. Meyes said she talked with her daughter Sunday night. "She said she would be leaving for the desert the next day, and she was thinking of us here," she said. The Meyeses learned of their daughter's death yesterday morning when ROTC sergeant from Indiana University of Pennsylvania knocked on the door of their home in Rochester Mills, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. "I'm numb," said her father, Franklin Mayes. "We didn't hear from her for two days, and it's been so long so we figured she was all right." ----------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent.