Thursday, ABC7 News spoke with Gold Star mom Dianne Layfield, whose marine son Travis was killed back in 2004. The Fremont native was just 19 when his battalion was ambushed.
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Layfield tells us the news of the bombings in Afghanistan resurfaced those painful memories.
"When I got home and turned on the news I actually started crying and I put my hands... my face into my hands and I just bawled," Layfield shared.
Those images on her television screen hit her especially hard, even now, 17 years after her son, Lance Corporal Travis Layfield, was killed along with ten U.S. service members, in that ambush attack in Iraq.
"When I got home that day to my apartment, I was in the back by where I park my car and all of a sudden three marines came walking around at the end of the carport, and they didn't even have to say a word I already knew that Travis had been killed," Layfield recalled.
VIDEO: Cousin of East Bay man who recently escaped Afghanistan, killed in Kabul airport attack
East Bay man mourns cousin killed in Kabul airport attack
"It was a very tough day I'll never forget it," she said.
Now, sadly more American families will get the news that Dianne got back in 2004.
"My heart goes out to them," she said. "I know that pain they are going to go through, I know they're going through the pain just waiting in anticipation. I just wrap my arms and love around them and pray they make it through... it's a very sad day."
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Dianne says if she could give these families her number she would, but wants each one to know that the community is there for them as they deal with their loss.
"Just tell em' to stay strong, you gotta carry on and make sure that their names are never forgotten. You have to live in their memory, make sure that they're remembered always."
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