From the Associated Press

Wednesday October 15, 2008 8:16 PM

By RUSS BYNUM

AP Military Writer= FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - A month after the Army told Brandi Durbin her husband was killed in Iraq by a soldier in his own unit, she carries a framed photo of him everywhere she goes. It's one way of keeping him close to soothe her grief.

"People think I'm crazy, because I have to take it out of my purse to get my wallet," Durbin said Wednesday. "But it does the job for me."

Durbin met with reporters Wednesday at Fort Stewart to speak about her husband, Sgt. Wesley Durbin, for the first time since he was fatally shot Sept. 14 along with his squad leader, Sgt. Darris Dawson, at their patrol base south of Baghdad.

The Army has charged Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich, who served under Dawson and alongside Durbin, with killing them both with a rifle.

Brandi Durbin, who lives in Springfield, Ga., said she's been told little about the case, but doesn't blame the Army.

"This is not the military's fault," she said. "My husband would roll over if he thought anyone was trying to say he didn't die for his country or that the military was at fault here."

The military, she said, "was his life," and her husband's fellow soldiers were like a second family. He joined the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in 2006 after having served in the Marines, which deployed him to Iraq during the 2003 invasion.

Fort Stewart will dedicate trees to Durbin, 26, of Dallas and Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., on Thursday at Warriors Walk, a living memorial of more than 400 eastern redbud trees for each 3rd Infantry soldier killed in Iraq.

The Durbins married 18 months ago after a whirlwind romance. They had only five months as newlyweds before her husband deployed for his second combat tour in Iraq.

The circumstances haven't made her husband's death more difficult to bear than if he had been killed in combat.

"I don't think, when your husband is killed in action, it really matters how or why," Durbin said. "He's not coming home."

The Army has released little information about the slayings. A Defense Department official in Washington has told The Associated Press the suspected shooter had been in a meeting with Dawson and Durbin to discuss his leadership performance. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public.

Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis has been jailed at an undisclosed location in southern Georgia since being returned from Iraq.

Maj. Lee Peters, a Fort Stewart spokesman, said rear detachment commanders have visited Bozicevich at least twice and brought him items such as clean socks and blankets. No hearings have been scheduled.

Maj. Amilcar Hernandez, chief defense counsel for the Trial Defense Service at Fort Stewart, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday. A paralegal in his office, Sgt. Victoria Martinez, said Bozicevich had been appointed a military lawyer in Iraq, but plans to hire a private defense attorney.

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Russ Bynum has covered the military based in Georgia since 2001.