Parents battle over body of soldier slain in Iraq

May 21, 2014 - PRLog -- More than two weeks after he was killed while pulling fellow soldiers from a burning vehicle in Iraq, the body of Army Staff Sgt. Jason Hendrix remains caught in a legal limbo created by a battle between his divorced parents over who has the right to bury his remains.

Renee Amick wants her 28-year-old son buried near her home in Freedom (Santa Cruz County), near where he was born and raised and spent his first two years of high school. She has obtained a temporary restraining order keeping his body in California and has enlisted the help of her local congressman, who questioned top Army brass on the matter this week.

Russell Jendrixof Claremore, Okla., believes his son should be returned to the state where he graduated from high school and enlisted in the Army more than a decade ago to lie beside the remains of his grandfather, a Marine. The elder Hendrix has gone to court to be named administrator of his son's estate.

Both parents, through their attorneys, said they are following wishes Hendrix expressed in life.

"The Army had reversed its decision, had reviewed certain documents provided by the father and his attorney," said Michael Barsi her attorney,. "The tie-breaking decision was made on who was the oldest parent, and the oldest parent happened to be Russell Hendrix."

"This tragic situation is the worst example of the Army being unresponsive and unhelpful," Farr said in a statement this week. "Making a family that only wants to lay their loved one to rest fight in court for his remains is an abomination, and the Army should be ashamed."
Army officials said the determination of Jason Hendrix's next of kin was made based onDepartment of Defense policy, which creates a hierarchy of next of kin.