By Jeremy Ewan, staff writer


Lance Cpl. Nicholas Bloem made the ultimate sacrifice for his country, and now his family is on a crusade to preserve the meaning of that sacrifice.

Bloem died last August in Iraq. His father, Al Bloem, of Belgrade, has taken over as chairman of Montana Families United, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting troops and their families.

Bloem traveled to Columbus, Ohio today to help kick off the Ohio chapter of Families United. He also will meet with the families of 13 Ohio Marines who died alongside his son when their amphibious assault vehicle struck a roadside bomb near Haditha, Iraq Aug. 3, 2005.

"As we've been on this new road that's been handed to us since August, we've found that our hearts are forever bound with other families, families we've never met from all over this state and throughout the country," Bloem said Thursday.

Montana Families United's motto is "for our troops and their mission." Bloem said that he feels the mission is too-often neglected when supporting soldiers.

"We have come to find that this indeed is the kind of organization that is needed on the national scale but in particularly also needed in Montana," Bloem said.

In August, Bloem told the Belgrade News that his son took a great deal of pride in the work that was being done in Iraq; and that the media's portrayal of the war too often ignored the great strides being made for the Iraqi people.

"After coming out of Vietnam in the 60s and 70s there is a lot of dissatisfaction with the way the media portrays what is going on on the ground," Al Bloem said. "I think that is some of the emphasis behind Montana Families United wanting to get the word out and wanting to actually support the troops for what they are accomplishing.

"I remember spending time when my son's unit ... came back to Ohio," he added. "To a man they felt that they had done a good thing. To a person all the way up the chain of command they felt that they were making a difference," he added.

Bloem said that all of the media attention given to war protesters can take a toll on the families of soldiers.

"I think you race through a lot of emotions. Certainly anger is part of that, mainly because we feel that the truth of what's actually going on on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan is largely being ignored or not being reported as clearly as it should be," he said.

"While certainly our country makes it possible for demonstrations to go on the way they have, I think we often forget why and how those freedoms have come to be and the kind of sacrifices that have been made to preserve those freedoms," he added.

There are currently eight families in the Montana Families United organization, which is open to "gold star" families who lost a family member in the war and "blue star" families who have a member currently fighting.

"There are a number of families here in Montana that are getting involved, but certainly the wounds are still raw. Even so for those ... whose sons lost their lives at the beginning of the most recent part of the conflict in 2003. I know from talking one-on-one that their wounds are still raw," Bloem said.

He said the organization has played an important role in helping him deal with that pain.

"I've been in touch with all sorts of families around the country and I dare say that the overwhelming majority of us support our troops, support what they are doing and feel that they need to be encouraged in every way possible," he said.