Nadia McCaffrey
Nadia McCaffrey was born in France and married an American, Bob McCaffrey; she immigrated to the United States. She is the founder of Angel Staff, a group of volunteers who bring a caring presence to terminally ill patients and their families. Her son, Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. and his supervisor First Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson was killed whilst serving in Iraq, in an ambush near Balad, Iraq on June 22, 2004.
She has campaigned against the war in Iraq along with Cindy Sheehan after her son's death when the Pentagon would not give her more details surrounding her son's death.
On June 20, 2005, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division concluded that the Iraqi Security Forces officers patrolling with her son's unit had killed Patrick and 1st Lt. Andre D. Tyson.
In 2005, she traveled to the Middle East to the countries of Jordan and the Iraqi border with filmmaker Mark Manning, who made a 30-minute documentary AbOUT the trip. They sought answers to what causes wars, and met with Iraqi mothers. Nadia explains her purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain." She helped deliver $600,000 worth of medicine and aid to the women and children that had suffered from the loss of their husbands and sons because of the United States invasion of Iraq.1
She is an ACTIVE member of Gold Star Families for Peace along with Cindy Sheehan. 2
Quote
- "After Patrick was killed and his body was on the way home, I decided to highlight what happened to my son in Iraq. I invited the media to take and distribute pictures and video of Patrickâs coffin arriving at Sacramento International Airport. Yes, this administration has a policy of banning on-base photographing of coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. But Sacramento Airport isn't a military base. And, frankly, I don't care what Bush wants.3
- "He was killed by the Iraqis that he was training. People in this country need to know that."4