Tears for Addy

Many babies are born while daddys are away in Iraq or other far corners of the globe, but few such stories quite equal this one. Last month Marine Sgt Joshua Horton was seriously wounded in fighting near Baghdad. Four days later his wife (a Navy veteran) gave birth to premature quintuplets.

Horton's mother, Lauchlan Jones, spoke to the media Friday in the Laurel Clark Memorial Auditorium on the NNMC compound to deliver Horton's message to the world. She was joined by Horton's two younger sisters and his brother, Peter Rodriquez, himself a former Marine.

"Good Morning and Oorah!," Jones started as she introduced herself. "I am the proud mother of Marine Sgt. Joshua Horton. I am here today with my family to talk about Josh, a son; a father, a brother and a real American Hero."

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A police officer in Aurora for the past five years, Horton was an active-duty Marine until 1998, but re-enlisted with the Reserve after Sept. 11. He left for Iraq last month for a scheduled seven-month tour of duty, even though his assignment would have extended about three months past a full-term pregnancy for his wife.

"However, it's important to note," said Jones, "that Josh and Taunacy both felt very strongly that somebody needed to defend our country, even though it meant Josh not being with his wife during the precarious early days of her pregnancy."

As Horton stated to his mother, "I feel it's my duty to go to Iraq with Marines I helped train." Jones said Horton was taking his Marine unit into combat for the first time and he wanted to get them there and back safely.

"Even when the Marines offered to let him stay behind because of his wife's pregnancy, he still wanted to leave, 'so somebody else's family could have their dad home for a while,'" she said.

However, this week,

Addyson Juanita Horton, one of the quintuplets born to the wife of a wounded U.S. Marine from Oswego, died Saturday, 19 days after she was delivered in an emergency Caesarean section.

"Addy's heart stopped beating early this morning and despite every effort ... she was unable to be revived," the family of U.S. Marine Sgt. Joshua Horton and his wife, Taunacy, said in a statement released by Edward Hospital in Naperville, where the child was being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

The family said that the public's "prayers and heartfelt thoughts are deeply appreciated" and asked for privacy as they grieve and make funeral arrangements for their "perfect, beautiful little girl."

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Monetary donations for the family can be sent to: The Horton Five, c/o Harris Bank, P.O. Box 6201, Carol Stream, IL 60197-6201, or can be made in person at any Harris Bank. Anyone with in-kind donations is asked to contact the office of Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn at (312) 814-5220