She goes on to plaintively ask President Bush how he thinks families who have lost loved ones in the Iraq war feel now that the evidence shows there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The woman is Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif. The son she lost in an early morning ambush in Baghdad last April was 24-year-old Army Specialist Casey Sheehan.

The ad comes from an anti-war/pro-John Kerry organization called Real Voices. In addition to Cindy Sheehan, several other mothers and sisters who have lost loved ones in the war testify, in stark 30-second spots, of their belief that the Bush administration needlessly took America to war.

In a novel fundraising technique, people were able to click on the Real Voices Web site and pay to have the ad aired in Swing States. Sheehan said she hoped to make the horror of her son's death a rallying cry during the final days of the presidential campaign.

Amid the politics, the anguish, and the anger she feels over her son's death, Sheehan said she does have one fond memory. The last conversation she ever had with her son fills her with hope that humanity will always triumph.

Speaking from her California home, Sheehan said the final call she got from Casey came late one night in March, two weeks before his death on April 4. He was in Kuwait, having recently passed through Shannon Airport.

Though Casey Sheehan, a Humvee mechanic, had never been in the Middle East, all he could speak of, his mother said, was "this nice lady" he had met at Shannon.

"He said she saw his name, 'Sheehan,' on his desert camouflage fatigues and started to tell him what she knew about the name," Cindy Sheehan recalled.

"He was so excited and said the woman had been so nice to just offer him all this information about the Sheehans -- that they're mostly from Cork or Limerick and how it's not that common a name in some parts of Ireland.

"I wish now that I hadn't been so tired, but it was typical Casey that he would focus on something positive."

Friends and family described Casey Sheehan as an all-around likeable, deeply religious, and trustworthy man. An Eagle Scout in a rural northern California town, he had already acquired an arts certificate at a junior college when he joined the Army.

Casey Sheehan initially requested to serve as a chaplain in the Army. He was denied, but he did train to be a Eucharistic minister and could offer communion in the field to his fellow soldiers.

According to his mother and father, Patrick Sheehan, the oldest of their four children was fiercely devoted to his country. He joined the Army out of a sense of duty, and as a way to help pay for college.

When a young man or woman enlists, the possibility of becoming a casualty is implied. Increasingly, families who have lost loved ones are questioning how well their children were prepared to face the enemy, and how well they were protected.

Sheehan said that many of the Humvees Casey worked on, including the one in which he was riding when he was killed, lacked metal plating that could have saved his life.

In the months since her son's death, Sheehan has tried to learn as much as possible about his last hours.

According to military records and soldiers in his unit, Casey volunteered to go out on his final mission. He had been in Iraq just two weeks.

"He didn't have to go that night, but he said, 'Where my chief goes, I go,' "Sheehan said.

There was intense fighting in Baghdad that night and help was needed to bring the wounded to safety. Casey had received some first-aid instruction during his training, and though mechanics do not usually go out on such missions, Casey offered to help.

They didn't get far. A rocket-propelled grenade hit his Humvee and small arms fire burst out from the darkness.

"He died in his best friend in the unit's arms," his mother said.

Casey Sheehan's personal belongings were shipped to the Sheehan's home in Vacaville. In the package was an unfinished letter.

"I got to speak with a woman at the airport, an employee there, and she told me about the country," begins the section on Casey's visit to Shannon and his four hours at the airport.

"The woman obviously made a very nice impression on Casey," Sheehan said.

Looking past the uniform

The woman is Linda Ward, the bar supervisor at Shannon, who has held the job on and off for 10 years. She was taken aback when she heard the news of Sheehan's death.

"I do remember him because we had a colleague who's now retired and he was a Sheehan and told me over the years about the Sheehans, and when I met the soldier I just told him what had been explained to me," Ward, who's 34, said.

"It is a bit emotional to hear this, and this puts things in perspective," she added, softly. "It was just a friendly chat because, you know, some don't look past the uniform, but I tend to think of them as brothers or husbands or sons when they come through.

"He told me he would like to come back to Ireland sometime to see where his family was from and he asked me where would be good places to go."

Ward herself is familiar with the Middle East. She lived and worked in Dubai at the Irish Village for two years. She met her husband, Darren, in Dubai.

"A lot of the soldiers coming back through from the Middle East come back in and say, 'I remember you from when we were heading over,'" Ward said. Some want to have their pictures taken with her. Others head directly to the telephone.

Ward has seen thousands of soldiers at Shannon. This is the first time, however, that she knows of one individual soldier who won't be by to spend his leftover euros before heading back to the States.

"I didn't realize at the time that it meant anything, but I'm happy it left such an impression," she said.

Sheehan has tried without success to speak to Ward. The time difference between Shannon and California and the women's schedules have made it difficult. Sheehan, in fact, had been busy traveling to battleground states to share her son's experience.

"I tried to call Linda's cell phone," Sheehan said in an e-mail from the road. She said she got Ward's voice mail. She said she just wanted to say thank you.