Joy and Patty are two of five sisters of Army Staff Sgt. Charles A. Kiser, left, member of the Army Reserve’s 330th Military Police Detachment who served in the military 16 years. Glenda Kiser is their mother. After 9/11, Sergeant Kiser felt compelled to serve again. He was essentially the first to join the 330th; he cleaned up a local reserve center that hadn’t been used recently, and began recruiting others. His mission in Iraq was to train the Iraqi Police force. He died at the age of 37 on June 24, 2004 while in Mosul, Iraq at a police training compound.

• Joy Kiser of Anderson Township, outside Cincinnati, had expressed a different view of the upcoming protest after visiting Capitol Hill on Thursday with her mother and sister for an event to honor families of soldiers killed in Iraq. Her brother, Staff Sgt. Charles “Chuck” Kiser, was an Army police officer who died on June 24, 2004, while trying to stop a suicide bomber. On their way out of Washington, the family visited a field of grave-like crosses near the Washington Monument where protest organizers had posted photos of the more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Joy Kiser demanded that her brother’s picture be removed from the display because "he would totally disagree with what these people are doing. Having a demonstration like this sends a negative message to the troops," Kiser said as she awaited her flight home. "We don’t agree with pulling our troops out of Iraq. They need to complete their mission." –Plain Dealer (Cleveland), 9/25/05.

• "Every one of them are heroes," [Joy] Kiser said. "Many have made the ultimate sacrifice as our brother did. We are thankful for all of them." The support-the-troops rally held Wednesday in Columbus was the first of 30 planned nationwide in 27 days as part of Operation Iraqi Hope.” –The Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio), 9/8/05.
  
  
• "Our brother never gave a second thought about what he was doing," said Patty Harkleroad of Cincinnati, joined by her two sisters in honoring Army Sgt. Charles A. Kiser, who was killed in combat on June 24, 2004. "He believed in it and went to Iraq because he felt they were doing good over there, and that's why we support the war." –The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio), 9/11/05.

• In a June 28 edition of CNN's "Larry King Live," she was asked, "I take it, Ms. [Glenda] Kiser, that you are still in support of American involvement in Iraq?" She replied: "Very definitely. I do support them. I support our President and what he's doing." She, too, met with President Bush, and she deemed the exchange "very good. I couldn't have asked for a more sincere person than talking to our President about losing our son." –Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia), 8/19/05.

• Sometime this week, Glenda Kiser of Amelia will look past the Lincoln Memorial and across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetery, the final resting place for thousands of American heroes. And she will think of her son. Sgt. Charles "Chuck" Kiser is not buried there, but he earned the right to be. In June, the 37-year-old Army reservist died while on security duty near Baghdad. A truck had burst through the compound gates. Kiser and others shot the driver, but the truck swerved, hit an obstacle and exploded. Kiser - a husband and the father of two - died in the blast. His mother will go to the inauguration, with her daughters and a daughter-in-law, to show support for President Bush. "I just feel like we ought to be there," Mrs. Kiser said. "I think my son would have liked it that we're going." –The Cincinnati Inquirer (Ohio), 7/16/05.