Gonzales family needs the truth

Army Staff Sgt. Esau Gonzales, 30, of Panhandle died May 3 in Mosul, Iraq. Other than that, and the Army deemed it a "non-combat related chest wound," that's about all his family and the public know of his death.

The Army needs to be much more forthcoming, and soon. A funeral Mass is scheduled for Tuesday and a memorial service is set for Wednesday in his hometown.

His family deserves every bit of information possible of Staff Sgt. Gonzales' final hours. Too be vague or even secretive is disrespectful and insensitve to his family, particularly to his parents and young wife, Melissa.

A spokesman for the Department of Defense said more information should be made available today. I hope the Army is simply conducting a thorough investigation before presenting the facts and not manufacturing some kind of cover-up.

If you read Jon Krakauer's book on the death of Pat Tillman -- "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" -- the public's confidence in the Army's truthfulness would be questioned. The former NFL player who was killed by friendly fire in 2004, and the Army's subsequent actions in the release of information, would make a lot of folks a little skeptical.