HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP - Tears streaked Norman A. Madison's face Monday as he recalled the day in 1990 that his late son, Spc. Anthony E. Madison, joined the Army Reserve's 14th Quartermaster Detachment in Hempfield.
"I still hurt all over inside," said Madison, 70, of Monessen.
Madison - then a supervisor at the nearby Rehabilitation Center Workshop - encouraged his 27-year-old son to get a job with the water purification unit after his honorable discharge as an Army staff sergeant earlier that year.
"I used to drive past the detachment building every day, so one day I asked what they do because (Anthony) was looking for work," said Madison, a former Marine who served in the 1983 invasion of Grenada. "Tony ended up here. He loved the people and the work, and I brought him back and forth every day."
When President George H.W. Bush initiated Operation Desert Storm, and the U.S. military entered the Persian Gulf to drive invading forces led by Iraq President Saddam Hussein from neighboring Kuwait.
On Feb. 19, 1991, the 14th Quartermaster arrived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Six days later, Anthony Madison was one of 13 members of the 14th Quartermaster to die when an Iraqi Scud missile slammed into their barracks during the waning days of the war.
In all, 28 soldiers were killed and 99 injured from the 14th Quartermaster and the 477th Provisional Transportation Unit in the fiery explosion that leveled the quarters.
The 14th Quartermaster sustained the greatest number of casualties of any coalition unit during the two-month conflict.
"I didn't want him to go. I knew he wasn't coming back. I dreamed it every night, then he didn't," Madison said. "I still can't comprehend it."
Yesterday, Madison joined about 70 family members, friends and veterans at a memorial service at the unit's headquarters in Carbon to mark the 17th anniversary of the attack.
Madison said he "wouldn't have made it this far" without the bonds he's made at the 14th Quartermaster.
At the 10th anniversary gathering, Madison met Chris and Heather McHugh, of Irwin, who invited Madison and his wife, Darla, to their place of worship, The Church near Sutersville.
The Madisons have worshipped with the McHughs ever since.
"Anthony is a hero like the rest of those who died. He died doing the right thing," said Chris McHugh, a former specialist in the Army's 24th Infantry who suffered a spinal injury in Operation Desert Storm.
"I'm going to have a barbecue picnic this summer so we all can meet again," said Madison, whose grandson, Anthony E. Madison II, 21, is an Army staff sergeant who will return in 2009 for a second tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Many such fellowships forged in tragedy were rekindled before yesterday's service.
Standing at attention in the cold rain were members of the 14th Quartermaster, friends and relatives, and 40 veterans from AMVETS Post 94 of United, the Armbrust Veterans, The Retired and Enlisted Association Chapter 98 of Scottdale, the American Legion Post 515 of Latrobe and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8643 of Pleasant Unity.
"To all men and women in uniform, past and present, thank you to those here for remembering those we've lost," said Dee Cassidy, a member of the 14th Quartermaster's Family Readiness Group.
