"My son did not agree with going into Iraq in the first place. But as a soldier in the military, he did what he was told. He was big on honor." |
JONATHAN E. KIRK, died May 1, 2007, aged 25
His father and stepfather were both fishermen, and so Johnathan E. Kirk was raised on the water in Beaufort County. A hunger to see the world, though, took him to Iraq's dusty Anbar Province.
In high school, Kirk was a small kid, but a dynamo who could lift more weight than anyone his size and got his brothers hooked on pumping iron, too, she said. He didn't play team sports at school but loved to play them informally and could do a flip as he ran, landing on his feet.
His mind worked as well as his muscles, and he could have done anything in life, said Noland Wilkins Jr., of Belhaven, his best friend from age 7.
Kirk got straight A's at Northside High School, where he graduated in 2000, without studying, said his friend. He worked for a couple of years on his father's 88-foot trawler and loved the water, Wilkins said.
"There was one time, though, he told me he just wanted to get out and get away," Wilkins said. "He wanted adventure."
"He was a hero, that's what he was," Wilkins said. "He was my hero."
It was hard, he said, not thinking about the times as kids when they played soldier with toy guns and argued fiercely about why neither of them had fallen after taking 15 or 20 "bullets."
He needed to do something, his mother said, that would ensure he was always remembered, and thought serving his country might do that as well as let him travel.
He wasn't in Iraq long enough to find much adventure, though he and his buddies did catch a hedgehog and turn it into a pet.
"He was just like a 4-year-old when he was telling me about that," she said. "It just gave them all a lift."
Lance Cpl. Kirk, 25, of Belhaven died Monday at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., from a host of injuries received April 23 when an improvised bomb exploded near his truck.
He lived long enough for his family to drive up to Maryland. They got to talk to him twice, Hopkins said. The first time, they had just two minutes before the attendants wheeled his broken body off for more surgery. The second time, they weren't even supposed to go in. His mother saw an open door and seized the chance, urging her husband and one of Kirk's brothers, Shawn Hopkins, 20, to follow.
He had been drugged but was conscious and could nod his head.
"When he saw his brother, he wanted to come out of that bed, he was so tickled to see him," Hopkins said.
Hundreds of mourners shielded themselves from biting wind and pelting dust Sunday to pay final respects.
Stroking the Marine Corps casket that bore his body, Glenda Hopkins wailed: "I want my baby back. I want my baby back. ... He told me he was coming home."
He was laid to rest near a canopy of trees in the Pamlico Beach Community Cemetery, just outside Belhaven.
Johnathan E. Kirk dies from 'wounds received while conducting combat operations'
Johnathan Kirk laid to rest
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"He went in to get adventure. He wasn't ready to settle down with school, he wanted to jump out of airplanes, climb mountains." |
ZACHARY R. GULLETT, died May 1, 2007, aged 20
ASTOR A. SUNSIN-PINEDA, died May 2, 2007, aged 20
RYAN P. JONES, died May 2, 2007, aged 23
KATIE M. SOENKSEN, died May 2, 2007, aged 19
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"He called me once and said, 'Dad, I'm not afraid of dying myself. I worry about making a mistake and getting someone else killed.'" |
JEROME J. POTTER, died May 3, 2007, aged 24
Growing up in Yelm, Jerome Potter liked to sneak onto Fort Lewis and secretly watch up close as the troops trained in the woods.
One time, he got too close. There was an explosion, and he got his bell rung so hard his ears bled.
"They brought him home and said don't ever come back unless you're going to join up," recalled his mom, Holly Burson.
Six years later, he did. And from then on Burson of Tacoma, said she always worried she would one day have to hear the worst news a soldier's mom can imagine.
That day came Thursday, when the Army said that Jerome had died in Iraq.
Burson said she had to hide her fears the day her son came to her a couple summers ago and said he was joining up. They both knew the risks, she said.
"I just decided, don't fight it, support him. ... I could never tell him 'this is killing me.' All the while he's been in Iraq, it's just been tearing me up.
But Potter wanted to become a soldier from an early age.
"He was very adamant," said his sister Amber. "He said 'I know there's this chance, but I'm going to do it.' It was what he really loved and what he wanted to do."
His family said he grew up in Yelm and Olympia, and attended Yelm High School before joining the Job Corps, where he got his GED. He worked a couple years as a forestry firefighter.
When he finished his enlistment he aspired to use his G.I. Bill money to become a park ranger.
The last time she spoke with her son, about four weeks ago, he told her things were getting tough in Baghdad. He said his unit was getting pushed into new areas.
"He said it was getting pretty brutal, and that he didn't think he was coming home. I told him 'you're coming home, you're coming home. Don't talk like that.' "
His mom and sisters Amber and Bobbi Jo have made T-shirts with his picture and a banner that they're going to put up on an Interstate 5 overpass at Fort Lewis.
The shirts bear the words, "I fought for you. Remember me."
Jerome Potter reported killed in Iraq
Jerome Potter remembered at memorial
Jerome Potter laid to rest
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"He was so proud of his truck. Every time he called me from Iraq, that was the first question he asked, how his truck was." |
ANDREW R. WEISS, died May 3, 2007, aged 19
COLBY J. UMBRELL, died May 3, 2007, aged 22
MATHEW T. BOLAR, died May 3, 2007, aged 24
KELLY B. GROTHE, died May 3, 2007, aged 21
FELIX G. GONZALEZ-IRAHETA, died May 3, 2007, aged 25
COBY G. SCHWAB, died May 3, 2007, aged 25
JOHN D FLORES, died May 3, 2007, aged 21
CHRISTOPHER N. HAMLIN, died May 4, 2007, aged 24
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"He was my hero just because he was my big brother and he spent time with me." |
KENNETH N. MACK, died May 5, 2007, aged 42
We were standing along the road that pitch-black night, the Marine Corps master sergeant and I, and he was explaining how insurgents detonated the roadside bombs that were killing and maiming so many Americans.
He gathered his young Marines for a pre-mission briefing and told them what was expected.
"We have a proactive mentality tonight," Mack told the Marines, who were seated in a small, stifling room in Fallujah.
"We're not defensive. We're looking for them. We see them, what do we do? We kill them. We're not out there to exchange potshots with these people. Get a positive ID on them. Then kill them. If they give away their position, light 'em up."
It went on like that for 20 minutes or so. Expect to be hit, he told them. Focus. Don't chitchat out there. Never take your eyes off the countryside. For any reason. If you have to pee, do it on the floor of the vehicle. There's a drain. Hose it out later.
He had them check their radios. One didn't work properly. Mack quietly chewed out the man responsible and talked of the possible consequences. He told them where they could anticipate attacks and spoke again about focusing on the mission and nothing else.
It was like listening to a great coach - Vince Lombardi or Red Auerbach maybe - before a game. No yelling; no hysterics. Just the business at hand.
We drove to the truck assembly point and Mack signed some papers, taking charge of the convoy.
That's when an American contractor - I think he worked for ATT - walked up to Mack and asked if he could join the convoy. Traveling alone on that road would be suicide, he said.
Mack grunted again, shook his head and said 50 trucks was already too many. Then he said something like, "Phone company, huh? Got any phone cards?"
The guy ran to his truck and came back with a fistful and handed them to Mack, who told him to join the convoy.
Mack grinned.
"I'll give them to the guys when we're done tonight," he said. "It's phone calls home."
Kenneth N. Mack dies 'while conducting combat operations'
Kenneth Mack remembered
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"He wanted to go there and do his job, but once he got there, his statement to me was that there was no mission. There was no defined mission, and that bothered him and everyone in his unit. Sometimes they would get fired at before they got their orders for the day." |
LARRY I. GUYTON, died May 5, 2007, aged 22
CHARLES O. PALMER II, died May 5, 2007, aged 36
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"He said he was going out on a mission for six or seven days and not to worry." |
ANTHONY M. BRADSHAW, died May 6, 2007, aged 21
Anthony Bradshaw and his twin brother had a grand plan when they got their physicals in 2004 at Fort Sam Houston.
They were tired of living on the margins, moving all the time and being evicted. They had decided to join the Army and later get an education.
"We don't want to bum it up all our lives," Sgt. Samuel "Sammy" Bradshaw said. "There has to be something better. That's what we were striving for the whole time. Just joining the military, we knew things had to get better."
Based in Iraq when his brother was killed, Sammy Bradshaw recalled a tough upbringing. Mom's firstborn son, Chris, went to his grandparents. Samuel, Tony, Anna and another brother, Alex, lived in El Paso housing projects.
But the family was close-knit, and they shared a lot of love.
Mom worked as a waitress. The kids sometimes didn't have much to eat. They split time between El Paso and San Antonio, which is why Sammy thinks of both cities and everything in between as home -- even though he and his wife, Andrea, now live in Fayetteville, N.C.
Mom and the kids would live in one place and then move somewhere else. Sammy was never sure why. The first eviction he could recall occurred before kindergarten.
"We've had a pretty interesting and crazy life," he said.
Before coming to San Antonio, Sammy and Tony attended at least a dozen El Paso high schools. They got an apartment in the Alamo City, worked and studied, the Army high on their minds.
The twins left their apartment and moved in with their mom. Sammy said he graduated from Northside Excel Academy in April 2004 while Tony got a GED. They took their physicals and entered boot camp a week apart at Fort Benning, Ga. Sammy put the blue cord of an infantryman on his brother's shoulder at a December graduation, then they ate lunch at the PX.
"After we ate, we talked for a while," Sammy recalled. "He said, 'I'm going to go downtown and go to the mall. I'm going to have fun.' I said, 'Cool. See you later, dude,' and that was it. That was the last time I saw him."
Sammy went to Bayji, between Baghdad and Mosul. Tony was in Diyala, one of the most violent places in Iraq this year. He didn't say much about the war in occasional calls and e-mails.
"Yeah, he was nervous," said Spc. Alex Pitts, 25, of Fort Polk, La., and a veteran of Afghanistan. "Me and my brothers would probably never say it. We probably wouldn't tell each other, but from talking to him I could tell he was scared."
Said Alex: "We wanted to break the cycle, do something else for a couple of years, come back, regroup and use our experience to better ourselves."
Entries on Bradshaw'sMySpace page reflected his sense of humor. A series of standard questions, meant to reveal the page owner's personality, asked Bradshaw to identify his fears and weaknesses. "Unlike Chuck Norris, I have none," he answered. And asked how he wanted to die, he responded, "Unlike Chuck Norris, I'll never die."
Anthony M. Bradshaw dies of injuries from I.E.D.
Anthony Bradshaw laid to rest
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"He told me that if something happened over there, he wanted me to be proud of him, and I am." |
SAMEER A.M. RATEB, died May.6 , 2007, aged 22
CHANCE (VIRGIL C.) MARTINEZ, died May 6, 2007, aged 33
ROBERT J. DIXON, died May 6, 2007, aged 27
JOEL W. LEWIS, died May 6, 2007, aged 28
JASON R. HARKINS, died May 6, 2007, aged 25
MICHAEL A. PURSEL, died May 6, 2007, aged 19
MATTHEW L. ALEXANDER, died May6 , 2007, aged 21
VICENZO ROMEO, died May 6, 2007, aged 23
CHRISTOPHER S. KIERNAN, died May 6, 2007, aged 37
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"Losing him is like having a piece of my heart ripped out. He had so much life ahead of him." |
DAN H. NGUYEN, died May 8, 2007, aged 24
An overcast morning provided friends and family of Danny Nguyen their final chance to say goodbye.
The young Army medic died trying to rescue his fellow soldiers during a gun battle in Tarhir.
Nguyen was a Vietnamese-American whose family escaped Vietnam 30 years ago.
In a sad twist of irony, many of those who came to pay their respects know how deeply war hurts, and how it's perhaps come full circle.
"It's quite possible that his grandfather and I met on the battlefield," a member of the Patriot Guard said.
Dan H. Nguyen killed 'when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire'
Dan Nguyen laid to rest
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"He the greatest brother a person could have. He enjoyed all kinds of sports, and he'd listen to your troubles and then make you laugh by being goofy." |
KYLE A. LITTLE, died May 8, 2007, aged 20
BLAKE C. STEPHENS, died May 8, 2007, aged 25
BRADLY D. CONNER, died May 9, 2007, aged 41
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"He always greeted me with a smile, a great big hug and a kiss no matter how old he was. Most teenage boys wouldn't have done that but he didn't care." |
JASON W. VAUGHN, died May 10, 2007, aged 29
The father of an Iuka soldier who was killed by a bomb while serving in Iraq said his son had a feeling he would die in the conflict.
Sgt. Jason W. Vaughn visited with his family in March while on leave midway through his second tour of duty in Iraq.
Walter Vaughn said his son spent more time than usual with his family during the visit.
Vaughn also visited as many friends as he could and one of his former teachers at Tishomingo County High School, family members said.
"He had an intuition about things and I think he knew what was going to happen. So he spent more time with his mother and family when he was here," Walter Vaughn said. "While we were talking he said he had seen too many things and had too many close calls, and he got the feeling his luck was running out.
"He really didn't want to go back, but he had to go because he had friends over there who needed him."
Jason W. Vaughn dies of injuries from I.E.D.
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"He could have a story for every day he lived." |
ROY L. JONES II, died May 10, 2007, aged 21
ANTHONY J. SAUSTO, died May 10, 2007, aged 22
JASON W. VAUGHN, died May 10, 2007, aged 29
MICHAEL FRANK, died May 10, 2007, aged 36
DOUGLAS ZEMBIEC, died May 10, 2007, aged 34
TONY (WILLIAM A.) FARRAR, died May 11, 2007, aged 20
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"He may have been small, but I'd just like to be half the man he was." |
ANTHONY J. SCHOBER, died May 12, 2007, aged 23
There was a moment at the end of Sgt. Anthony J. Schober's burial service Thursday in Santa Rosa when his two lives -- two families, really -- intersected amid talk of his love for junk food and video games.
There was his sister -- one of two -- Rebecca Schober, 20, clutching the framed photo of her slain brother that she held tightly throughout the service, her face full of tears and anguish even as she recalled her big brother's unhealthy appetite for Hostess Ho Hos and Dr Pepper.
But talk of his favorite menu for a session of video games caught the ear of several Army buddies who drew near, smiling and laughing about the "Schobe" they knew in Iraq during the first two of what would be three tours of duty there before his death May 12.
"We'd come back from patrol -- 12, 18 hours on patrol -- and we didn't want to sleep, and we'd hook together four Xboxes and we'd play Halo for three or four hours," said Staff Sgt. Jamie McCarrick, who still serves in the 10th Mountain Division's Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment out of Fort Drum, N.Y.
"That was Anthony," Schober's father, Ed Schober, said with a smile as he stood above his daughter, trying to comfort her with a shoulder rub. "That was Anthony."
Schober's youngest sister, Jessica Schober, 19, cradled her tiny infant, Konner, and fretted that her brother would never know her son.
"He was just a great guy," she said, "and I love him so much. And I just wish he could have met his nephew."
The 23-year-old soldier was on patrol two weeks ago with six of his men and an Iraqi translator when they were attacked south of Baghdad. Schober was among four soldiers killed at the scene, although his body was so badly burned he was not identified until four days later.
He initially was thought to be among three other soldiers taken prisoner.
Family requests privacy as it awaits word on Anthony Schober
Best friend of Anthony Schober speaks out
Anthony Schober's grandparents speak out
Remains of fourth soldier from Saturday's ambush identified as Anthony Schober
Anthony Schober laid to rest
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"In rough times, he would always say, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of it.' And he always did." |
DANIEL COURNEYA, died May 12, 2007, aged 19
JAMES D. CONNELL, JR., died May 12, 2007, aged 40
CHRISTOPHER E. MURPHY, died May 12, 2007, aged 21
RHYS W. KLASNO, died May 13, 2007, aged 20
ANDREW J. BACEVICH, died May 13, 2007, aged 27
CHRISTOPHER N. GONZALEZ, died May 14, 2007, aged 25
JAMES (ALLEN J.) DUNCKLEY, died May 14, 2007, aged 25
JOHN T. SELF, died May 14, 2007, aged 29
NICHOLAS S. HARTGE, died May 14, 2007, aged 20
THOMAS G. WRIGHT, died May 14, 2007, aged 38
JEFFREY D. WALKER, died May 14, 2007, aged 21
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"He could take a serious room and make us all roll on the floor in minutes. He was a big kid." |
STEVEN M. PACKER, died May 17, 2007, aged 23
Clovis High graduate, SGT Steve Packer, died Friday when a bomb tore through his humvee. The Clovis soldier died while looking for three other soldiers who are missing in Baghdad in a region nicknamed the "triangle of death".
Just 23 years old, SGT Steve Packer had served four years in the Army. Nearly all of it in Iraq. He was on his third tour of duty when killed by a roadside bomb on Thursday. When last home on leave in March, he told his mom the situation in was bad.
Sgt. Packer's mom, Robin Davidson, says, "He was very fearful of going back there because he knew what he was going back there to. He knew it was dangerous. He would tell me sometimes it was not safe for them, that they were just put in harms way."
Steve joined the Army after graduating from Clovis High school in 2002. His mom says he was motivated to defend his country after 9/11. He was supposed to be out of the Army last May, but under stop loss orders, Steve and thousands of others were forced to stay in another year.
Robin Davidson says, "His plan was to be home, he had served his four years. And he should have been home. He should have been home. And he did not want to go back to Iraq."
One of Packer's dreams was to marry his fiancée, Stacy Xiong. During the services, Barry Johnson, Packer's cousin, read from an e-mail that soldiers still serving in Iraq sent Xiong on May 20.
"I want you to know that every one of us on the ground that day did everything possible to save Steven," wrote Sgt. Justin Puchalsky. "I don't know what to do without him, I sit and stare at his bunk and sob into my hands. ... Everyone here feels your loss. ... It will never be the same without him."
Steven M. Packer dies 'of wounds suffered when his dismounted patrol encountered an improvised explosive device'
Steven Packer laid to rest
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"He loved babies. He was so looking forward to coming home and holding his baby on his chest and sleeping. It is so sad that he'll never have the opportunity to do that. He would have been the greatest dad on the planet. There is no doubt about that." |
COTY J. PHELPS, died May 17, 2007, aged 22
VICTOR M. FONTANILLA, died May 17, 2007, aged 23
JESSE B. ALBRECHT, died May 17, 2007, aged 31
AARON D. GAUTIER, died May 17, 2007, aged 19
JONATHAN V. HAMM, died May 17, 2007, aged 20
ANSELMO MARTINEZ II, died May 18, 2007, aged 26
JOSHUA G. ROMERO, died May 18, 2007, aged 19
CASEY W. NASH, died May 18, 2007, aged 22
SCOTT J. BROWN, died May 18, 2007, aged 33
MARQUIS J. McCANTS, died May 18, 2007, aged 23
RYAN J. BAUM, died May 18, 2007, aged 27
RYAN D. COLLINS, died May 19, 2007, aged 20
JASON A. SCHUMANN, died May 19, 2007, aged 23
TRAVIS F. HASLIP, died May 19, 2007, aged 20
ALEXANDER R. VARELA, died May 19, 2007, aged 19
JOSEPH A. GILMORE, died May 19, 2007, aged 26
DAVID W. BEHRLE, died May 19, 2007, aged 20
JEAN P. MEDLIN, died May 19, 2007, aged 27
CHRISTOPHER MOORE, died May 19, 2007, aged 28
JUSTIN D. WISNIEWSKI, died May 19, 2007, aged 22
MICHAEL W. DAVIS, died May 21, 2007, aged 22
BRIAN D. ARDRON, died May 21, 2007, aged 32
SHANNON V. WEAVER, died May 21, 2007, aged 28
JULIAN M. WOODALL, died May 22, 2007, aged 21
BENJAMIN D. DESILETS, died May 22, 2007, aged 21
STEVE BUTCHER JR., died May 22, 2007, aged 27
OSCAR SAUCEDA JR., died May 22, 2007, aged 21
JOEY (ROBERT J.) MONTGOMERY JR., died May 22, 2007, aged 29
DAVID C. KUEHL, died May 22, 2007, aged 27
ADRIAN (ROBERT A.) WORTHINGTON, died May 22, 2007, aged 19
KRISTOPHER A. HIGDON, died May 22, 2007, aged 25
DANIEL P. CAGLE, died May 23, 2007, aged 22
JONATHAN D. WINTERBOTTOM, died May 23, 2007, aged 21
VICTOR H. TOLEDO-PULIDO, died May 23, 2007, aged 22
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"When he said he was your friend, he was your friend. If he said he had your back, he had it all the way to the end." |
JOSEPH J. ANZACK JR., died sometime between May 12 and May 23, 2007, aged 20
Hard swallows, trembling hands. A left heel tapping rhythmically on the pavement - one, two, three, four. Tight hugs.
They waited anxiously, their eyes fixed on the gray morning skies, their nerves more apparent with every plane that rumbled into sight. Their boy was finally coming home.
A hero, a brother, a soldier, a son.
It wasn't the return they envisioned when he left.
About a month ago, the family of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. endured the most frightening of rumors: The soldier was dead in Iraq.
After messages were posted on MySpace.com, South High School, where he had been a football star, put a message on a sign outside that said: "In Loving Memory Joseph Anzack Class of 2005." It wasn't until the Red Cross helped his father speak with him by phone that the family could put the rumor to rest.
On Wednesday, the family relived the trauma only this time, it was real. Anzack was identified as the soldier whose body was found in the Euphrates River in Iraq after being abducted with two comrades a week and a half ago.
"We wanted so much for Joseph to come home. We were going to have a big parade," mother Theresa Anzack said, gazing out the window of the small charter terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. "We had plans. I had dreams for him. Getting his first place, falling in love, grandchildren. What a proud grandmother I would be."
Greeted by a 10-man Army honor guard, dozens of area law enforcement officers and his immediate family, the 2005 South High School graduate was received with a stirring silence of steady salutes and gentle tears far louder than the roar of jets overhead. His coffin was wrapped tightly in the American flag.
Standing tall, his jaw clenched firmly, father Joseph Anzack Sr. placed his hand on the flag, holding it there for a long minute. With one arm around her mother, sister Casey, 16, leaned down and kissed the colorful cloth.
Anzack's mother, Theresa, draped herself over the coffin gently, carefully, slowly running her hand back and forth as if to soothe her son one final time.
5 dead, 3 missing as 7 soldiers and Iraqi interpreter come under attack in Mahmudiyah
After false report of death three weeks ago, Joseph Anzack's family again praying for safe return
Dad tells of plans for father-son trip with Joseph Anzack
Report: Body of one of the missing found in river
Report: Body identified as Joseph Anzack
Boyhood friend vows to fight in Joseph Anzack's place
Joseph Anzack comes home
Joseph Anzack honored at memorial service ahead of burial at Arlington
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ROBERT H. DEMBOWSKI, died May 24, 2007, aged 20
It was tough to learn of the death of Army Pfc. Bob Dembowski Jr., who was 20 when he was killed in Iraq a few days ago.
Tough, because I had talked to him and written about him in June 2005, just a few days before he graduated from Council Rock. He was headed to boot camp at the time.
When I went to Bob's house Friday to give my condolences to his parents, his mother, Fran, retrieved the cap from his bedroom. We talked at the dining room table. The cap was in front of us.
That's when they told me about a woman they know only as "the Battery Lady."
"We always wanted to meet her, but we don't know who she is," Fran said.
She touched Bob's life shortly before he left for Iraq.
Bob was in his Army fatigues and had stopped to get gas at a Gulf station in Richboro.
"He was talking to the lady on the other side of the pump," Fran said. "She thanked him for serving in the military. She told him she had a family and she really appreciated his service to the country. For Bobby, that was a gift, that woman thanking him.
"So he gets into his car," Bob Sr. said. "It wouldn't start. So he got out and went to the attendant. So the attendant came out, looked at the car and said, "Looks like you need a new battery."
Fran said: "Bobby didn't have the money on him. He was probably going to have to call us to help him."
Meanwhile, the woman next to him went to pay for her gas. She asked the attendant what was wrong with Bob's car. The attendant said it needed a battery.
"The woman said, "Put it on my card with my gas,' " Bob Sr. recalled. "She left without telling Bobby what she did. So the attendant says to him, "That lady who just left, she just bought you a battery.' "
The woman didn't leave her name.
"Bobby always wanted to thank her. Most people wouldn't have done it. I don't know if all she thinks she did was buy a battery," Fran said. "It was more than that.
"Bobby was a regular teenager going through a lot of teenage issues at the time, thinking the world was a really bad place and people were bad. But when he came home from the gas station, he couldn't wait to tell us. He said, 'Mom, there are really good people in this world.' It changed him."
Robert H. Dembowski dies of 'wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire'
Robert Dembowski remembered
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MARK R.C. CAGUIOA, died May 24, 2007, aged 21
In a May 4 attack in Baghdad, Caguioa, 21, lost both his legs and left arm after a roadside bomb explosion. His family said his trip back to the United States, to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., was due to his miraculous strength. He struggled to stay alive at the medical center until May 17, long enough for his family to see him one last time.
While at the hospital, Bush visited. He sat next to Caguioa and his family and called him a hero.
"We know Mark was a hero. But (the family) doesn't believe that what he did in combat or in the Army made him a hero. Coming home to us was heroic," said Maria "Blanquita" Climaco, the soldier's aunt. "He should not have survived his injuries. But he did. He used all his strength to come back for us, to be our hero."
Corporal Mark Ryan Climaco Caguioa, 21, died Thursday, May 24, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland., after receiving a wrong blood transfusion in Iraq. Nate Ramirez, a medical worker at the Bethesda center, said that, while being treated in Iraq, Caguioa had received six units of type O+ blood. He was a B+.
"They're getting sloppy," one medical worker said. "They're getting tired." He added that "the whole system" is under strain because there are "so many casualties"...
Mark R. C. Caguioa dies at Bethesda 'of wounds suffered on May 4 in Baghdad, Iraq, when the vehicle he was in struck an improvised explosive device'
Mark Caguioa laid to rest
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"When he was a kid, he always played with soldiers. He wanted to be in the military all the time." |
ROBERT E. DUNHAM, died May 24, 2007, aged 36
RUSSELL K. SHOEMAKER, died May 24, 2007, aged 31
IOSIWO URUO, died May 24, 2007, aged 27
BENJAMIN J. ASHLEY, died May 24, 2007, aged 22
CASEY P. ZYLMAN, died May 24, 2007, aged 22
DAVID P. LINDSEY, died May 25, 2007, aged 20
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"He said, 'I've seen more death than I ever thought I would see in my life.'" |
ALEXANDER ROSA JR., died May 25, 2007, aged 22
Alexander Rosa, 22, was killed Friday in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle. His daughter, Ellie, is only a month old. His wife, Melissa, is a widow just eight months after marriage.
"He did not want to be in Iraq," his aunt, Elizabeth Mendez-Soto of Winter Park, said Tuesday. "But he said he had to go back, that it was his job."
When Alex Rosa Jr. realized he was going to be a dad, he purchased baby books and read them into a tape recorder. He wanted his infant daughter to get used to his voice while he was stationed in Iraq.
In Army Spc. Rosa's usual clownlike manner, he brought each book to life. He described what filled the book's pages and made the appropriate noises to tell the whole story, such as a pig's oink.
Those recordings were supposed to be a temporary substitute for the real thing. Now they are his legacy.
Alexander Rosa Jr. dies 'of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle'
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MATHEW P. LaFOREST, died May 25, 2007, aged 21
A 21-year-old graduate of Bowie High School in Austin was killed Friday in Taji, Iraq, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday.
LaForest was a quiet boy with brown hair and brown eyes, "the most perfect child you could have," said his father, Mark LaForest, a retired Air Force officer.
LaForest's family puts some of the blame for his death on Army recruiters, who told LaForest when he was 18 that he probably would not be sent to Iraq, his father said.
Although LaForest grew up on military bases, his decision to join the infantry in wartime came as a shock to his family. Mark LaForest believes the way the Army recruits had a lot to do with his son's decision.
"They start treating them like buddies, and four years later ... a certain percentage of these kids feel obligated to go into the military," he said.
His family is awaiting permission from the governor to bury him at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
They have asked that local recruiting officers not attend his funeral.
Mathew P. LaForest dies of 'injuries suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations'
Mathew LaForest remembered
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"Are you surprised he would've volunteered?" |
NICHOLAS R. WALSH, died May 26, 2007, aged 27
GREGORY N. MILLARD, died May 26, 2007, aged 22
MICHAEL J. JAURIGUE, died May 26, 2007, aged 20
CLAYTON G. DUNN II, died May 26, 2007, aged 22
WILLIAM LEE BAILEY III, died May 26, 2007, aged 29
COY (CLINTON C.) BLODGETT, died May 26, 2007, aged 19
FRANK (FRANCIS M) TRUSSEL JR., died May 26, 2007, aged 21
ERICH S. SMALLWOOD, died May 26, 2007, aged 23
CHARLES B. HESTER, died May 26, 2007, aged 23
THOMAS M. McFALL, died May 28, 2007, aged 36
KEITH N. HEIDTMAN, died May 28, 2007, aged 24
TUCK (THEODORE U.) CHURCH, died May 28, 2007, aged 32
JUNIOE CEDENO SANCHEZ, died May 28, 2007, aged 20
ALEXANDRE A. ALEXEEV, died May 28, 2007, aged 23
JAMES E. SUMMERS III, died May 28, 2007, aged 21
ZACHARY D. BAKER, died May 28, 2007, aged 24
ANTHONY D. EWING, died May 28, 2007, aged 22
KILE G. WEST, died May 28, 2007, aged 23
JONATHAN A. MARKHAM, died May 29, 2007, aged 22
JOSEPH M. WEIGLEIN, died May 29, 2007, aged 31
RICHARD V. CORREA, died May 29, 2007, aged 25
ROBERT A. LIGGETT, died May 29, 2007, aged 23
DOONEWEY WHITE, died May 29, 2007, aged 26
JAMES E. LUNDIN, died May 30, 2007, aged 20
JOSHUA M. MOORE, died May 30, 2007, aged 20
BACILIO E. CUELLAR, died May 30, 2007, aged 24
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"He saw guys in his unit burned alive." |
MATTHEW A. BEAN, died May 31, 2007, aged 22
The connection was bad, the conversation brief. He was in a dangerous situation, but Pfc. Matthew Bean called home on May 18 to let everyone know he was OK.
The next day he was struck down by a sniper's bullet. Trying to save the lives of fellow soldiers, he would lose his own.
Matthew wasn't much for writing letters, but called as often as he could. He got leave and came home for Thanksgiving.
Even then, he knew that what he was doing in Iraq was dangerous, but he also knew it was important, Dana Bean said.
"Like any story you hear, he was a little nervous, a little scared," Bean said. "But they all want to go back because they don't want to leave their friends behind."
Matthew's family said he was no couch potato: He loved the outdoors and a multitude of sports. Snowboarding, wakeboarding, judo, soccer and football still left him time to play the guitar.
Matthew's decision to join the Army was one he took seriously. He spent a semester in college studying agriculture and worked in landscaping. He got his first job when he was a sophomore in high school to save money for a pickup truck. He worked for the Pembroke landscaper Down to Earth.
But the story of another Pembroke soldier had touched and stayed with him. Marine 1st Lt. Brian McPhillips was the first soldier from the South Shore to lose his life in Iraq, in 2003, just a few months before Matthew graduated from Silver Lake Regional High School.
"We talked about that, about Brian McPhillips' commitment," Dana Bean said. "You could see it sink in, it made him think."
Though somewhat reserved, he always wanted to be in the thick of things, his brother Timothy said.
"He was a pretty funny guy, he'd always crack jokes, lighten the mood." Timothy said. "I was looking forward to him coming home and being able to spend time just hanging out and getting back to normal."
After surgery in Germany, Bean was flown back to the U.S. to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, on May 23, and later was moved to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. There he was surrounded by his parents, step-parents, brother, Timothy, and his fiancée, Sarah O'Neill.
Bean was taken off life support Wednesday and died early Thursday morning. He was 22.
Matthew Bean reported to have died at Bethesda of wounds suffered when shot by a sniper
Matthew Bean remembered
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""I hope it's worth it, what he's died for." |
MATHHEW E. BAYLIS, died May 31, 2007, aged 20
CHADRICK O. DOMINO, died May 31, 2007, aged 23
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"He did not lose his life. He gave his life." |