Log in to WRAL.com with one click using your favorite social network:
OR
Log in using your WRAL.com account:



Wrong email/password combination.

Forgot password?

Register with WRAL.com using your favorite social network:
OR
Register for a WRAL.com account using our web form.

12:42 a.m. • 5-23-13

Weather Forecast for Raleigh

  • Today: Thunderstorm.
    • Hi: 83° F
  • Fri: Partly Cloudy.
    • Hi: 74° F
  • Sat: Clear.
    • Hi: 72° F

Other Locations

> 7 Day Forecast

Doppler Image

Published: 2011-10-13 18:56:00
Updated: 2011-10-14 06:48:10

Families walk in remembrance of dead Bragg babies


Remembrance walk at Fort Bragg
Remembrance walk at Fort Bragg
print friendly

An annual walk at Fort Bragg took on special significance Thursday night.

About 50 people walked from Womack Army Medical Center for the "Walk To Remember," an observance normally for parents of children who died in a miscarriage or from illness shortly after birth. Participants used this year's walk to honor 13 babies who have died under mysterious circumstances in military housing on post in the last five years.

Three of the infants died in the same house in the Ardennes neighborhood on Fort Bragg, prompting a review by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command.

The CID and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission conducted tests on the house and others on post where youngsters died of unknown causes, but they found no environmental link to the deaths.

The mothers of the dead infants refuse to believe nothing was wrong with the housing.

"I've pressed them for everything," said Melissa Pollard, whose 2-month-old son died in April 2009. "I went up there and raised havoc, yelled and screamed and cried and begged and everything. It's as if they don't care. It's not their family. It wasn't their child."

Top officials at Fort Bragg and in the Army have expressed frustration, saying they have done everything they can do. CID in May closed the case on the investigation into 10 of the deaths.

Three others have died of mysterious causes since November, the latest last month. Those cases remain under investigation.

Jamie Hernan, an Atlanta attorney who represents several of the families, said there are no lawsuits in the works, but he continues to advocate for the families. Solving the mystery will take someone coming forward with a new piece of information, he said.


9 Comments


WRAL.com welcomes your comments on this story. All comments are moderated prior to publication based on our posting guidelines. Please review them prior to posting and if your message is not approved.

View Comments VIEW ALL 9 COMMENTS

This story is closed for comments. Comments on WRAL.com news stories are accepted and moderated between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Latest Comments
I agree that there was an alternate agenda. They should have focused on the fact that we were there to remember babies who have been lost no matter the cause. I am offended at the fact that stillbirth was not mentioned at all and that miscarriage was mentioned "in passing" if you will. About the title, it could have been a little less harsh. Dead Bragg Babies...

Although I appreciate your coverage of WOMACK's 5th Annual Walk to Remember, I think you totally missed our primary mission. We walk to remember all pregnancy losses including but not limited to infertility, ectopic, miscarriage, stillbirth, and all infant losses no matter the reason. We are also there to support our families in their grief. To use our Walk to focus solely on the unfortunate infant deaths in Ft Bragg post housing indicates an apparent alternate agenda.

It's very tragic the death of these children. I have to wonder if any of these families smoked indoors which greatly increases SIDS. We are a military family and you would not believe the amount of people on base that smoke in their house with children! However, the single house where all the infants keep dying just needs to be torn down.

You know, if someone within the general public had worded a post in a similar manner, the undefineable censorship that this "moderator" exhibits probably would have squashed it. An excerpt from their own guidlines "Comments that are potentially hurtful to crime and accident victims and their families" Would this not apply as well? Not to deviate from the topic at hand, which is recognizing this tremendously emotional subject for those that have lost infants to an unknown agent. My deepest sympathies as I could not imagine enduring such a tragic event.

Yes, the title bothers me too...could have been worded with more "feeling". Why do people continue living here?? I understand the military and all that is why they live there, but if it was me, I'd be finding another place!!

View Comments VIEW ALL 9 COMMENTS