Justice for Senior Airman Carl Ware, Jr

Please help us to call upon President Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the United States Air Force to reopen an investigation into the death of Senior Airman Carl J. Ware, Jr. who was shot and killed in Iraq at Camp Bucca while serving with the 886th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron in 2006. We feel that the United States Air Force owes his parents and his daughters a full accounting of the facts surrounding his death. For those who know Carls story, you know why we ask this. For those who dont, please consider the following: Our son was 22 years old; he had two daughters, one who will never know her father. The official report of his death was he was accidentally shot in the chest on July 1, 2006 when he walked into his living quarters and another Airman who was playing with his weapon (and claims he did not know it was loaded) shot him. An unidentified callers phone message to his fathers cell phone two weeks before on June 14, 2006 stating your son has been in a terrible accident and died has never been explained, as the phone calls to the base where he was stationed and their chaplains office were never returned. This phone message suddenly disappeared two days later. His parents were initially told very little; like that the shooting occurred while another soldier was cleaning his weapon and were told that his death was an accident until November 2006 when a JAG informed them in their home that there was a murder charge. No ammunition should have been at the barracks, yet two magazines of live ammo were recovered. The airman who shot him claims he did not load the gun, and did not acknowledge or deny having the live ammo in his locker. Investigators claim there were no fingerprints recovered from the gun or ammo, but modern breakthroughs in fingerprint technology can recover prints from metal even after being washed and wiped off, or a bullet that has been fired. The Air Force has never been able to provide one source of proof that Carl was alive between June 14th and July 1st. The initial charge was murder, but three days before the court-marshal began a plea of involuntary manslaughter was submitted and accepted as a pre-trial agreement by the JAG officers for the case. As a result of the plea bargain, the Airman charged with his shooting death was only required to answer a few questions regarding the shooting. He is serving 8 years and 6 months in prison at Leavenworth but will probably be out in 6 years on good behavior. This petition itself does not call for any form of punishment, only for the case to be reopened by the military courts.
We, the undersigned, petition President Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the United States Air Force military courts to re-open a thorough investigation into the facts regarding the shooting death of Airman Carl J. Ware, Jr. at Camp Bucca in 2006.