Brookfield - The two sisters of a United States soldier slain in Iraq last week will not have to return to active duty with their units in Baghdad once their emergency leave expires, a spokesperson for the family said on Tuesday.
Army officials told Rachel and Charity Witmer that they could be excused from further service in the war zone in line with longstanding Pentagon policy if they chose that course of action, a Witmer family spokesperson told reporters at a brief press conference.
All three women had enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard, a part-time citizen soldier's unit, and were deployed to Iraq.
Specialist Michelle Witmer, 20, with the Guard's 32nd Military Police Company, was killed on Friday when her Humvee was ambushed. She was killed just weeks before her unit was expected to go home.
Her grief-stricken parents pleaded for their two remaining daughters - Rachel, 24, and Charity, Michelle's twin - to be allowed to serve out the rest of their tour of duty in the United States.
But the women said on Tuesday that they were deferring the wrenching decision until after their sister's funeral.
"They are focusing their attention on spending time with their family and grieving the loss of Michelle," spokesperson Joan Apt said.
In the same statement, Specialist Rachel Witmer, who is attached to the same unit as Michelle, and Sergeant Charity Witmer, a medic with the Guard, also stationed in the Baghdad area, touched on the dilemma facing them.
The women, tearful and clinging to their parents and brothers, did not speak at the brief press conference at a church in Brookfield.
But they sent a message to their comrades back in the field in a written statement.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with you," they wrote. "Not a minute goes by that we don't think of you. We are conflicted, because we have two families and we can't be with both at the same time."
Under Pentagon rules, military personnel can be exempted from serving in "hostile-fire" areas, or if they are already there can request to be reassigned, if one of their family members is killed or dies in a combat zone. - Sapa-AFP