Sisters in Arms
The Witmer sisters were always very close - so when the eldest of the three, Rachel, joined the US military it was no surprise that twins Charity and Michelle soon followed. Their parents John and Lori gave them their backing.
At first the sisters were stationed near their family home in Wisconsin, but in March 2003 they got the call-up to Iraq.
After 13 months in Baghdad, at the age of twenty, aspiring journalist Michelle Witmer became the first female National Guardsman killed whilst serving in Iraq.
She had been in the gunner turret of her tank, but was shot after coming under heavy ambush from insurgents.
The Witmer siblings were already in the media spotlight but Michelle’s death and her parents’ efforts to get her surviving sisters reassigned, created a storm of attention – some of it negative.
Their father John Witmer has written a book called “Sisters in Arms: A Father Remembers” in the hope that readers of Michelle’s story will re-evaluate what the death of a soldier means to their families.
He tells Outlook’s Audrey Brown about his three daughters and their experiences in Iraq and beyond.
First broadcast 23 August 2010