Sherwood Baker was 13 months old when he arrived at Al and Celeste Zappala's West Mt. Airy home as a foster child, already neglected by two families, starting with his own.

He was then was joined by two natural brothers Dante and Raphael, who he was exceptionaly close to as evidenced that he named his son James Dante Raphael.

Sherwood was raised in a household with two loving parents -- Al, a South Philly native, and his then-wife Celeste Zappala, now the city's deputy mayor on aging

Like many foster and adopted children, Baker sought out his own natural family members and had on-again, off-again relationships with them, but he remained with the Zappalas until he left for college at age 18.

He then had a family of his own -- a wife, Debra, and a son, J.D., now 9. He worked in childcare. He spun records on the weekends.

Sgt. Sherwood Baker, 30, of Plymouth, was laid to rest in Italian Independent Cemetery, West Wyoming, following an emotional service at the First United Methodist Church, Wilkes-Barre, PA.

About 300 people, including Gov. Ed Rendell, attended the service.

The soldier's brother, Dante Zappala, 28, recited the eulogy. Dante first read prepared comments from Baker's other brother, Raphael, 25.

As bag pipers played on, Baker's 9-year-old son, J.D., followed behind the flag-draped coffin. J.D. Baker was decked out head-to-toe in desert military uniform, like his dad wore in Iraq.

The military performed a 21-gun salute and the military guard played, "Taps."

Military officials then wrapped the flag and presented it to Baker's widow, Debra,

Baker's family will receive a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service.

He was killed on April 26 while performing site security outside a suspected chemical weapons factory in Baghdad, Iraq.

Gov. Rendell, who attended Tuesday's church service, knew Baker's family.
Celeste Zappala worked for Rendell when he was the mayor of Philadelphia.

Rendell also coached Raphael Zappala's basketball team.

"This is the first family I know well that has lost a boy in either Iraq or Afghanistan," said Rendell.

"It just heightens my resolve to conclude our efforts in Iraq."

Baker's family has made it clear they would like for people to know the price families pay as a result of war.

The Citizens Voice
http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=
11440855&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=455154&rfi=6
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FAMILY OF FALLEN GAUARDSMAN GRAPPLES WITH HIS DEATH

Los Angeles Times
Steve Lopez
Sunday, May 30, 2004

...Even before he lost his brother, Dante Zappala had not been quiet about a war that was pushed on the American public with fear, bluster and deceit — a war that has bogged down in ways that were so utterly predictable.

...Zappala was a family of peaceniks that ended up with a son and brother who wore the uniform and marched off to Iraq to serve his country, even after Zappala was arrested in an antiwar protest in San Francisco last year.

Sherwood was a complicated guy, Zappala said. He went to Catholic high school but wore a pro-choice button. He lived in a conservative blue-collar Pennsylvania community where everyone flies a flag from the porch, but wrote letters to the editor saying it was insulting to have a school holiday for the start of hunting season but not for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

"He was displaced as a child, and it seemed like he was always trying to make family and make permanence, and he was the most committed father you could imagine," Zappala said.

Sherwood had joined the National Guard after helping a rural Pennsylvania unit fill sandbags during a flood, and the Guard became family, too.

"He made clear that he understood the false premise for the war," Zappala said. "But when the time came for Iraq, it was not about going or not going for him. He wanted to protect his family …

Figuring Out the Price of Death
http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/
la-me-lopez30may30,1,4438255.column
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DANTE ZAPPALA'S LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT:

MR. BUSH, YOU'D HAVE LIKED MY BROTHER

  My brother, Sherwood Baker, died in Iraq last week. I tried to call you and I tried to write to you, but you never responded. I’m writing to you again because I believe, had you known him, you would have liked him ... And maybe if you knew him, if you knew the other soldiers, you’d have thought differently about sending them.

Sherwood was a foster kid, and he came to our family before I was born. He had limited contact with his biological family. Our parents never let him go. They received him, raised him, and he was their child. He was their son and my brother.

In so many ways, Sherwood represented the country he loved. He was dealt a tough hand and turned it into opportunity. Always struggling between optimism and reality, he seemed to be on a life-long quest to codify a family.

When he became a father at 21, he embraced the role with enviable enthusiasm.

He joined the Army National Guard in Wilkes-Barre. He wanted to help his community, wanted to support his wife and his son, and wanted to pay off his college loans. He discovered brotherhood in the Army as well.

Now he was part of one more family. He found it whenever he sat and talked.

I can certainly find things about him that you would appreciate. I know you’re familiar with fabrications. You remember the things you said about the weapons and the terrorist ties?

Well, he wasn’t as good as you, but listen to him: He told us he would be OK, he’d return safe, we’d see him soon.

And check this out – he was a “C” student, too. When he was called up, I told him that if he wanted to get out of guard duty, he, too, could apply to Harvard Business School.

Sherwood just laughed. You made him laugh. Yet, he still went to fight in your war. He never wavered, never cried, never expressed a desire to somehow get out of this mess. He went. Because he knew responsibility.

He knew it as well as he knew how irresponsible you had been for sending him. He had honor, and he had pride. Sherwood had commitment – to his country, to his job and to his unit. Maybe not so much to his commander-in-chief, quite honestly, but that’s probably because he didn’t know you. Because you didn’t sit down with him.

You just sent him a letter and a plane ticket to Baghdad.

I heard that you have yet to attended the funeral of a fallen soldier. I, too, had never been to a soldier’s funeral before Tuesday. I fully understand why you’re ducking it. It’s tough.

I heard Sherwood lived two hours after he was struck in an explosion. Long enough, I hope, to make his peace with everybody he called family. But I can’t say for sure if he made peace with you. He didn’t know you.

Sherwood is in a grave now and there’s a folded flag in his wife’s arms. He’s at rest, but he’d be happy to listen to what you have to say. Even now, you can still help him to make peace. You said we need to finish the work of the fallen. You may be surprised to know that the real work he started was not in Iraq. Sherwood’s work is here.

Mr. President, I want you to look into the eyes of his 9-year-old son and see his unfinished work. Feel free to get back to me. We ought to talk. You won’t have a problem finding me. I stick out in a crowd these days. I’m the proud little brother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker.

With hope,
Dante Zappala

Philadelphia Daily News | 05/06/2004 | Mr. Bush, you'd have liked my brother
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/opinion/
8600585.htm?ERIGHTS=5369466059251049008philly::trimtantre@aol.com&KRD_RM=
6uronpsqpqutqnvvmmmmmmmmmn|Richard|N
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A mother speaks

The following letter from Celeste Zappala was published by The New York Times May 23.

To the Editor:

In “The Hawks Loudly Express Their Second Thoughts” (Week in Review, May 16), you note that the shapers of thoughts and architects of the war now have troubling doubts about their enthusiastic support of the invasion of Iraq. How sad for them.

I am the mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker of the Pennsylvania National Guard, soldier 720. That number is seared on my soul now, along with the screams and despair of my family and the wind carrying the sound of taps above the weeping crowd at the grave site of my son.

To me and mine, the consequences of the failed judgment and outright lies of the Bush administration and its apologists and spokesmen are not just becoming “depressed” or “angst-ridden.” We have lost our brave and beloved son, who was ordered to the war these folks dreamed of and hoped for.

The explosion that killed my son in Baghdad will go on in our lives forever. Sherwood gave the full measure of his responsibility as an American citizen doing his duty for an administration that betrayed him.

Celeste Zappala

People's Weekly World Newspaper Online - ‘Mr. Bush, you’d have liked my brother’
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/5302/1/217