Spc. Ciara Durkin - a mysterious death at Bagram Air Base

Ciara Durkin was the eighth of nine children, all born in Ireland.
Their father, Tom Durkin, who was born in New York City, moved to Ireland when he was 3.

After retiring as a teacher in Galway, Tom Durkin returned to the United States with his wife, Angela, and settled in Dorchester in 1986 when Ciara was 9. Ciara’s father died of a heart attack several weeks after the family moved to Boston.

She joined the US Massachussets Army National Guard in October 2005 - she celebrated her 30th birthday in Afghanistan in July apparently never concealing her lesbian lifestyle. (Condolence list of Patriot Guard Riders)

Ciara died froma non combat single gu shot wound to the head an hour after finishing work on Thursday 27th September in the Bagram Air Base , Afghanistan. Ciaran had a desk job with the 726th Unit’s Task Force Diamond undertaking fiance / clerical work included making sure the finances of soldiers were in order and their families back home were receiving benefits.She had been there since February and was due for return to the US next February.

In a statement signed by Jim Boland MA Assistant State Captain dated 1st October (No 1171-07) , the Massachusetts National Guard said Durkin was killed in action on Thursday in Afghanistan.

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Spc. Ciara M. Durkin, 30, of Quincy, Mass., died Sept. 28 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 726th Finance Battalion, Massachusetts Army National Guard, West Newton, Mass.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

For more information related to this release, media may contact the Massachusetts National Guard public affairs office at (508) 233-6562.

Now CBS are reporting that The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

Initially the Pentagon reported that Durkin, had been killed in action, but then revised its statement to read she had died of injuries "suffered from a non-combat related incident" at Bagram Airfield. The statement had no specifics and said the circumstances are under investigation.

"The family has been informed that she was in the compound, and she was shot in the head," Durkin's sister, Fiona Canavan, told the Boston Globe. "She was in a secure area of the compound, which, even though the investigation is not complete, leads the family to believe it was what is called friendly fire," she said.

Fiona Canavan told the Quincy, Mass. Patriot Ledger on Wednesday that when her sister was home three weeks ago, she told her about something she had come across that raised some concern with her: "She was in the finance unit and she said, 'I discovered some things I don’t like and I made some enemies because of it.'"

Canavan revealed that Durkin said if anything happened to her, to make sure it was investigated.

Massachusetts Senators Ted "Mary Joe Kopechne" Kennedy and John Kerry and Rep. William Delahunt are pressing for answers.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that after her military memorial service in Boston on Saturday part of her remains will go to the Arlington cemetary in Washington and the rest will return to be buried alongside her father.

Operation Homelink

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2007 – The nonprofit group “Operation Homelink” provided 100 Massachusetts National Guard families with refurbished desktop computers earlier this month to ensure they can communicate with deployed loved ones via e-mail - one of the computers supplied by Raytheon was for Ciaran's mother to keep in touch with her daughter more here at DefenseLink