The following are excerpts from a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article from Sunday, October 1, 2006, entitled "Murtha Friends Rally"   written by Richard Gazarik.

"Diane Santoriello, of Penn Hills stood in the bone-chilling drizzle Saturday in Johnstown's Central Park to show her support for U.S. Rep. John Murtha, the focus of a "dump Murtha" movement.
Her 24-year-old son, Brian, was killed in combat in Iraq in 2004. She turned out to support Murtha and his demand for an end to the Iraq war.
"I've been called unpatriotic because of my opposition to the war," she said. "Murtha is one of my heroes."
Santoriello stood with two other parents, Celeste Zappala, of Philadelphia, and Derek Davey, of Lowville, N.Y., who both lost sons in Iraq, and in support of Murtha, who is calling for a withdrawal or redeployment of U.S. forces.
An estimated 2,000 people assembled in the city's downtown to support Murtha, a Johnstown Democrat..."

"Zappala, whose son, Sherwood Baker, 30, was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die in Iraq, said Murtha telephoned her after her son's death in 2004.
"He was very kind when Sherwood was killed," she said. "He was very comforting to me."

Murtha brought out the brass for the rally.
He was backed by retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former commander of NATO forces; former senator and Navy SEAL Bob Kerrey, who won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam; Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam; and Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat.

Murtha said the attacks against him are being orchestrated by administration officials "sitting on their fat backsides in the White House sending our young people to war when they don't understand the circumstances."

Shelton said "they just don't get any better than Jack Murtha."
Kerrey said Murtha "had the courage to stand up and say the leadership was not telling the truth about the war in Iraq. What does Jack Murtha get for standing up? They slime him."
Clark, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, called Bush's leadership "incompetent" and "inept."

Cleland likened the criticism of Murtha "to a mackerel shining in the moonlight. It shines and stinks at the same time."
Rendell criticized Murtha's opponents for interfering in the congressional race in the 12th District where Murtha faces Republican challenger Diana Irey, of Washington County, in November.
"How dare these outsiders come here to Pennsylvania and impugn the patriotism of one of our greatest sons ... Pennsylvania has ever had," Rendell said.