IN MEMORIAM.......These BRAVE Men and Women died.......FOR US

[Silky]

First Lieutenant Osbaldo Orozco, 26, Delano, Calif.

5-14-03

As an All-American linebacker at Cal Poly, Osbaldo Orozco had a good shot at making it in the National Football League.

Instead, he accepted a commission in the Army on the day he graduated, believing that would be the quickest path to a career in the FBI or CIA.

Orozco, of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, based in Fort Hood, Texas, died April 25 when the Bradley Fighting Vehicle he commanded rolled over near Tikrit, Iraq.

Orozco was fearless on the football field. Before each game, he painted his face with black war paint and wrapped a green camouflage bandana around his head.

He was team captain by his sophomore year, and his 300 career tackles rank third alltime at the Division II California school.

But he is remembered by friends and family as a soft, kindhearted man.

His widow, Mayra Orozco, recalls the time he adopted a cat from an animal shelter.

"He loved that cat so much," she told the San Jose Mercury News. "He . . . bought her a bow and a little bell to wear."

She said her husband believed in the cause he died for. "He thought we needed to stop terrorism and Hussein and what he was doing to his people," she said.

Mark Rodriguez, assistant principal of Delano High School, remembers Orozco as a wonderful role model for other students. "I hope my two sons, who are 9 and 10, grow up to be just like Osbaldo," he said.

Orozco is survived by his parents, Jorge and Reyes, Mexican immigrants who worked the grape fields of California; his wife; and four brothers.

 

[Silky]

Specialist Narson B. Sullivan, 21, North Brunswick, N.J.

5-4-03

Narson Sullivan loved to Rollerblade. He even carried his skates to class despite rules prohibiting their use.

Sullivan’s culinary arts instructor, Rob Allen, recalls a day when the energetic teenager put down his rolling pin and put on his Rollerblades.

"I began admonishing him on our school regulations," Allen said. "Within 20 minutes, I was on the Rollerblades skating around the classroom, and he was advising me on techniques."

That’s what set Sullivan apart from his classmates at the East Brunswick campus of the Middlesex County Vocational-Technical High School system.

"I felt I was a student of his as much as he was mine," said Allen, who taught Sullivan for four years and considers him one of the top 10 students he’s come across in two decades of teaching. "He taught me to not take things so seriously and to focus on the finer things in life."

Sullivan embraced the finer things in life, from racking up numerous awards for his play on the soccer field to pulling pranks on his classmates and teachers. He harbored dreams of a career in law enforcement.

Joining the military was the financial bridge between high school and college.

Just months after graduating, Sullivan enlisted in the Army on Aug. 11, 2000. He was assigned to the 411 th Military Police Company out of Fort Hood, Texas, on Feb. 1 and was sent to Iraq in mid-March.

Sullivan died Friday, April 25, when his gun went off while he was cleaning it. The death is under investigation.

"He touched everyone. He was just very loving and cared about everyone," Natasha Sullivan, his twin sister, told The New York Times. "I wish I had one more chance to just hug him and tell him that I love him."

In addition to his sister, Sullivan is survived by his parents and a younger brother.

The high school is setting up a scholarship fund in Sullivan’s name in a fitting tribute to the soldier, who was always active in fund-raising efforts at the school.

"He was very bright, very reserved and very conscious of what was going on around him," said Tony Crea, a science instructor who taught Sullivan his senior year. "Whatever needed to be done, he did."

And he did it with a smile.

"That’s why his presence will always be in my classroom," Allen said.

 

[Silky]

First Sergeant Joe Jesus Garza, 43, Robstown, Texas

5-7-03

No sooner did Mary Garza learn the president would announce the war in Iraq was over than she heard a knock at the door of her Columbus, Ga., home. Army officials told Mary her husband of 24 years, 1 st Sgt. Joe Jesus Garza, died Monday, April 28, in Baghdad when he was thrown from a Humvee in which he was a passenger and hit by a civilian vehicle following the Humvee.

Garza, 43, assigned to the 1 st Battalion, 30 th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga., was the 138 th U.S. soldier to die in the Iraqi conflict.

"The way he was killed and the fact that the war was almost officially over makes it all the more difficult for me to accept," Mary Garza told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

She said her husband was a dedicated soldier, husband and father to their sons Joe Jr., 23, John, 22, and daughter Myra, 16.

Garza served in the military for 19 years and although he was eligible to retire, his wife said he was "military through and through" and had no intention of retiring until he made command sergeant major, the highest noncommissioned rank.

"He loved me," she told the Corpus Christi Caller Times, published near Robstown, Texas, where the couple met and married after his 1978 high school graduation.

"He was very friendly and always had a positive attitude."

Family, friends and former colleagues said Garza was a jokester, skilled athlete and tough soldier. Many paid him tribute on a message board hosted by the Caller Times.

"We were good friends, we competed against each other in high school — we ran track and played baseball in (the) summer," Peter Saiz, retired from the Air Force, wrote from San Antonio. "Joe is a hero for the odds he beat and the soldier he became. His legacy is the family who loved him and that he loved. I am deeply sad he is gone but very proud to have known him."

Speaking on behalf of the 2/30th Infantry, Army Lt. Col. Mel Hogan said he served with Joe in the ’80s and "the Army lost a great leader."

"Joe was always the ideal role model as a soldier and a friend," Hogan said. "He was widely respected as the sharpest, most dependable soldier in the unit. His intelligence, dedication and sense of humor were invaluable to all of us — and to me personally."

 

[Silky]

Army Sgt. Sean C. Reynolds, 25, of East Lansing, Mich.

5-3-03

Assigned to 74th Long-Range Surveillance Detachment 173rd Airborne Brigade, Camp Ederle, Italy; killed in Iraq when his M-4 rifle accidentally discharged after he fell off a ladder he had been climbing.

Sean C. Reynolds enlisted in the Army at age 17, right after graduating from East Lansing High School. He served in the Army Rangers, one of the military’s elite units, and saw his work as a way to help people in need, said his older brother, Kevin.

Reynolds died of a gunshot wound May 3 when he fell off a ladder and his rifle went off, shooting him in the head.

“He wanted to fight for people’s justices — no matter who they were,” Kevin Reynolds said. “He said, ‘You may not agree with me politically, but give me a chance.’ ”

 

[Silky]

Army Pvt. Jason L. Deibler, 20, of Coeburn, Va.

Assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, Smith Barracks, Baumholder, Germany; killed in Kuwait by a non-combat weapon discharge.

Jason L. Deibler joined the Army in October after completing a clerical occupational program at the Flatwoods Job Corps Center, a vocational training center in southwest Virginia. He was studying to go into computers.

“He was likable, a very personable young man,” said Sheila Pinkston, a counselor at the center. “A lot of us remember him.” Pinkston said he was a native of Anchorage, Alaska, and had come to the center from Hampton, where he still had relatives.

Deibler was killed May 4 at Camp New Jersey in Kuwait in an accidental shooting. “He was so proud to be in the Army,” his father, Kevin Deibler, said. “We heard from him when he was in Germany, and he was more happy than he had ever been in his life. The one saving grace is that it happened when he was at the happiest point in his life.”

Deibler’s fiancee, Nicole Reddington of Hampton, said she will always remember him as a loving, caring young man. She said she cherishes the photograph of the two of them watching dolphins off Virginia Beach.

“He loved his family very much, and he always wanted me to be included in his family,” Reddington, 20, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I know he loved me very much. He told me that I was his first real love.”

Jason Pugh, 22, of Woodbridge, spent about five months with Deibler at Flatwoods, a vocational training center for 232 at-risk students on 70 acres in southwest Virginia. He hadn’t heard from his friend since Deibler joined the Army in October, but said Deibler couldn’t wait to get going.

“He was always very enthusiastic about the military,” Pugh said, adding that he wouldn’t have been surprised if Deibler became a “lifer” in the Army. “To him it just seemed like a big, exciting adventure. He was looking to be a part of the Army and he wanted to travel. He wanted that respect, to be a part of that Army machine.”

Kevin Deibler called his son’s death “very, very hard.”

“Everybody’s in a state of shock, and there are a lot of tears,” Deibler said. “Jason was the most loving person you’d ever want to meet in your life. He loved his family more than anything in the world, and he loved to be with his family more than anything in the whole world.”

 

[Silky]

Army Pfc. Marlin T. Rockhold, 23, of Hamilton, Ohio.

Assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), Fort Stewart, Ga.; killed in Iraq by a sniper while directing traffic on a Baghdad bridge.

Marlin Rockhold was married to DaVonna Rockhold on March 2, 2002, two days before he joined the Army, and was the stepfather of her 8-year-old child. His wife said she last heard from her husband four days before he was killed, when he called to tell her he missed her and was expecting to come home soon.

“We just couldn’t believe it when they called to say he had been killed,” said his uncle, Kevin Henderson. “We had just received a letter from him the same day we got the news of his death, and he was excited about coming home soon.”

Rockhold was a 1998 graduate of Hamilton High School in Hamilton, about 25 miles north of Cincinnati.

 

[Silky]

Army Pfc. Jesse A. Givens, 34, of Springfield, Mo.

5-1-03

2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed in Habbaniyah, Iraq, when his M-1A1 tank fell into the Euphrates River after the bank on which he was parked gave way.

Givens, a 1987 graduate of Glendale High School, enlisted in the military in January 2002 to pay for further education. Fifteen months later, he was deployed to the Middle East for the war in Iraq. The day before he left, he told his father, Frank, that he would be working with the best tanks and serving in the best platoon, squadron and cavalry the Army had to offer.

Givens died May 1 after drowning in a tank accident. He was driving an Abrams tank when a riverbank gave way, plunging the tank into the Euphrates Rivers. “It’s hard to stop 65 tons on the sand,” Frank Givens said. The family received word of the death just an hour after President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

 

[Silky]

Army Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brian K. Van Dusen, 39, of Columbus, Ohio.

5-9-03

Assigned to 571st Air Medical Company, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed when his UH-60 air medical helicopter crashed in the Tigris River in Iraq.

Brian Van Dusen died while performing the kind of mission that was his reason for joining the Army, his brother said.

“He believed in saving lives, not taking them,” David Van Dusen said. Brian Van Dusen was killed May 9 when his Black Hawk air medical helicopter snagged a power wire across the Tigris River as it took off during the rescue of a wounded Iraqi child, and flipped over and into the water. The child was in another helicopter and was flown to safety.

He had been living in Colorado Springs, Colo., with his wife, 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son. Brian Van Dusen had been flying military helicopters for 19 years. His brother David said he last spoke to Brian on the day he shipped out from Fort Carson, Colo. The two were making plans for an annual deer hunting trip in December. “You just can’t take anything for granted,” David Van Dusen said. “I’m going to miss him. He was a good brother and a great father.”

 

[Silky]

Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Hans N. Gukeisen, 31, of Lead, S.D.

5-9-03

Assigned to 571st Air Medical Company, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed when his UH-60 air medical helicopter crashed in the Tigris River in Iraq.
• • • • •

Hans Gukeisen was always smiling, said one of his teachers at Lead High School in South Dakota.

“He was just great; he was really a nice kid. He’ll be missed,” said his physics teacher, Rose Emanuel. Gukeisen graduated in 1989.

He was killed May 9 when his Black Hawk air medical helicopter snagged a wire across the Tigris River as it took off during the rescue of a wounded Iraqi child, flipping the helicopter over and into the water. The child was in a second helicopter and was flown to safety.

Gukeisen joined the Army right out of high school. He was a veteran of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 and then went to helicopter school. Gukeisen’s father, Terry, is retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve.

“A father couldn’t be any more proud of the way his son turned out than how Hans turned out,” he said.

 

[Silky]

Army Cpl. Richard P. Carl, 26, of King Hill, Idaho

5-9-03

Assigned to 571st Air Medical Company, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed when his UH-60 air medical helicopter crashed in the Tigris River in Iraq.
• • • • •

Richard P. Carl was promoted posthumously from corporal to sergeant in a ceremony in Iraq. Carl died May 9 when his Black Hawk air medical helicopter snagged a power wire across the Tigris River as it took off during the rescue of a wounded Iraqi child, and flipped over and into the water. The child was in another helicopter and was flown to safety.

He leaves behind a wife, a 3-year-old daughter and a 19-month-old son.

“Corporal Carl is a tremendous example of our military’s commitment to risk life and limb to help the innocent Iraqi civilians wounded in the war,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho. “He went to the Middle East to fight for our freedom with valor and courage in this time of national crisis and died in defense of his country.”

 

[Silky]

Marine Lance Cpl. Cedric E. Bruns, 22, of Vancouver, Wash.

5-9-03

Assigned to 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, Eugene, Ore.; killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident in Kuwait.

Cedric Bruns was a graduate of Prairie High School in Vancouver. He arrived in Kuwait in January for his first tour of duty overseas.

The Marine reservist died May 9 when the pickup truck he was driving collided with a logistics support vehicle, similar to a flatbed truck. Bruns was a combat engineer in a unit trained to do “anything from demolition to building,” said Gunnery Sgt. Rick Nelson.

 

[Silky]

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew R. Smith, 20, of Anderson, Ind.

5-10-03

Assigned to Detachment 1, Communications Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group, Peru, Ind.; killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident in Kuwait.

Lance Cpl. Matthew Smith died May 10 when the Humvee he was driving as part of a convoy to Kuwait’s Camp Coyote crashed into a parked trailer. His father, David Smith, said he knew his son, a radio operator, was not safe even though President Bush said the war in Iraq was over. “Last week me and my wife talked about the dangers out there,” David Smith said, “and the number of people getting killed in helicopter accidents and wrecks.”

 

[Silky]

Marine Lance Cpl. Jakub Henryk Kowalik, 21, of Schaumburg, Ill.

5-12-03

Assigned to 1st Maintenance Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed in Iraq when unexploded ordnance he was handling detonated.

Jakub H. Kowalik came to the United States from Poland in 1992 and was a permanent U.S. resident. He enlisted in the Marines during his senior year at Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Ill.

Kowalik was killed May 12 near a Marine encampment when unexploded ordnance he was handling exploded.

“He’s my hero, my best friend,” said his older brother, Paul Kowalik. “He was a good person, the last person this should happen to.”

 

[Silky]

Marine Pfc. Jose Franci Gonzalez Rodriguez, 19, of Norwalk, Calif.

5-12-03

Assigned to 1st Supply Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; killed in Iraq when unexploded ordnance he was handling detonated.

Jose F. Gonzalez Rodriguez was the kind of student all his teachers liked to remember. A Mexican immigrant, he was an honor student, an athlete and someone who seldom missed a high school event.

“He really enjoyed all of that,” said Linda Granillo, the school principal. “We remember him dancing at all the school dances. He was very well-liked.”

Rodriguez played third base on the baseball team and liked wearing his John Glenn Eagles baseball cap at school. He came from a large and very supportive family, Granillo said, and was recruited by the Marines just after high school.

“The military is a good opportunity,” Granillo said. “But you hate to lose kids from your school this way.”

 

[Silky]

Air Force Staff Sgt. Patrick Lee Griffin Jr., 31, of Elgin, S.C.

5-13-03

Assigned to 728th Air Control Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; killed in action near Diwaniyah, Iraq, when his convoy was ambushed en route to Baghdad.

Patrick Lee Griffin Jr. joined the Air Force five years ago to take advantage of education benefits. He was promoted to staff sergeant in February 2003 and deployed to Iraq in April.

Griffin, a data systems technician, was killed May 13 when his convoy was ambushed on the way to Baghdad. “He had only been there a few weeks,” said his stepmother, Paula Griffin, of Groton, N.Y. “We thought the war was over with.” She said her stepson married his wife, Michelle, in 1997; they had two children, Mackensie, 2, and Cory, 4.



Associated Press


EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The wife of an airman killed in Iraq says her husband never should have been there because of family emergencies, including his mother-in-law’s terminal illness.
Staff Sgt. Patrick Griffin Jr., 31, was a “computer geek’’ whose two children, Corey, 4, and Makensie, 2, don’t understand he will never return, said his wife, Michelle. He died May 13 when his convoy was ambushed on the way to Baghdad.

He had been gone three weeks when Michelle returned to their home on this Florida Panhandle base to find four military representatives on the doorstep.

“I knew,’’ she said. “I told them, ‘You came here to say something. Just say it.’ ”

When they did, she cursed, hit them and tore the ribbons from their uniforms, she told the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach.

Her mother, who lives in Gainesville, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer in February and given six months to live. Griffin asked to stay home to help his wife. His request was denied. Last week, Michelle’s mother had surgery and her life expectancy is now a couple years.

“I don’t have any feelings or anger toward the men who shot my husband,’’ she said. “Pat and I had talked about it. We were going to kill their people. They were going to kill ours. I’m mad that Pat was even there.’’

Two weeks after he left, Makensie broke her nose and Michelle got blood poisoning. Doctors wanted to hospitalize her, but she went home to be with her children.

Griffin asked for medical leave but was turned down. A week later, Makensie fell carrying a glass and cut her hand to the bone. When Griffin called, they argued about it.

He called again the next day to apologize and said he would be going to Baghdad. There was one more call the following day.

The couple met when Michelle was 8 years old and Griffin moved in next door in Dryden, N.Y. They dated as teens, married in 1997 and he joined the Air Force the next year. He died during his third deployment.

“This time he had a premonition,’’ Michelle said. He gave her numerous instructions on what to do if he should die.

Since his death, she had been trying to find out what happened. The woman driving his truck told her they had been blowing tires all day. The convoy stopped and they got out. That’s when a bullet went through his side and shoulder.

An investigation is continuing and Michelle plans to remain in the Panhandle, renting a house in Crestview, for a year to see it though.

Her husband’s ground radar unit, the 728th Air Control Squadron, is due back in December.

“When that plane comes in and Pat doesn’t get off that plane, that’s when I’ll begin to have closure,’’ she said. “That’s when I’ll know that it’s real.’’

 

[Silky]

Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Brian Kleiboeker, 19, of Irvington, Ill.

Assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; killed near Al Hillah, Iraq, when the munitions bunker he was working in caught fire and exploded.

Nicholas Brian Kleiboeker grew up in Odin, Ill., and graduated from Odin High School in 2001.

“He couldn’t wait to serve his country,” said a friend, Michael Dunbar. “All he ever wanted to do was join the service. Ever since he was 15 it’s all he ever talked about.”

Kleiboeker was killed May 13 near Al Hillah, Iraq, when the ammunition bunker he was working in caught fire and exploded. Classmate Josh Case went to boot camp with Kleiboeker in 2001. “We talked about going into the Marines since the junior year of high school,” Case said. “I went reserves and he wanted to go actives; that’s the kind of guy he was.”

 

[Silky]

Army Spc. David T. Nutt, 32, of Blackshear, Ga.

5-14-03

Assigned to 494th Transportation Company, Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed in a vehicle accident in Mosul, Iraq.

Spc. David T. Nutt was remembered as “a gentle person, very caring — just a good man.”

“He was just a proud, wonderful man,” said his wife, Heidi Nutt, from their home on post at Fort Campbell, Ky. “A strong soldier who never complained about nothing.”

Nutt was driving a five-ton truck near Mosul May 14 when he swerved to avoid an automobile driven by an Iraqi civilian. The truck overturned and Nutt was killed.

He entered the Army in July 1995 and met his wife, who was working in child services at Fort Campbell, the following year. They were married seven months later. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter, Emily.

Nutt was deployed to Iraq on March 6 with his unit, which was responsible for transporting soldiers and equipment. When he wasn’t thinking about his job, Nutt enjoyed spending time with his family and taking care of their daughter, his wife said.

Heidi Nutt last spoke to her husband on May 12, the day after Mother’s Day. She said she remembers every word of the conversation. “He wanted to wish me a happy anniversary and he couldn’t wait to come home to see us,” she said.

 

[Silky]

Army Master Sgt. William L. Payne, 46, of Otsego, Mich.

5-16-03

Assigned to 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, Fort Riley, Kan.; killed in an accidental ordnance explosion in Haswah, Iraq.

When a war in Iraq became likely, Master Sgt. William L. Payne put off his retirement because of a sense of duty to the men who served under him.

Payne, who first joined the Army shortly after graduating from Otsego (Mich.) High School in 1975, was killed May 16 when ordnance exploded as he examined it.

Payne would have had 25 years of military service in September, said his stepmother, Beverly Payne. He was preparing to retire, but decided to wait. “He felt that he should go over there with his men that he worked with so long,” she said.

Payne was the oldest of four siblings, including a brother and two sisters, his stepmother said. He is also survived by his wife, Karin, whom he met in Germany; two sons, John, 21, and Nicholas, 14; and his father, William O. Payne. His mother, Rosemary, died in an automobile accident about 20 years ago.

Payne had been stationed at Fort Riley, Kan., since 2001. He was also assigned there from 1995-98. Most recently, he was the intelligence noncommissioned officer in charge for the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division. He previously served as the first sergeant for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

While in high school in Otsego, about 14 miles north of Kalamazoo, Payne wrestled and played football all four years, his stepmother said. After serving an initial hitch, he left the Army and returned to the Kalamazoo area for 18 months or two years before re-enlisting and becoming a career soldier.

 

[Keli]

I have been following this thread ever since you started it and you are probably just taking a break but I just wanted to encourage you to finish it. I don't want to forget those that have made the ultimate sacrifce in this war and I appreciate having a place to read about their lives.

 

[SAYHEY]

Army Spc. Rasheed Sahib

5-18-03


Army Spc. Rasheed Sahib, 22, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; assigned to 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; killed by an accidental weapons discharge in Balad, Iraq.

Spc. Rasheed Sahib, 22, of New York City, was remembered by family and friends as a big-hearted guy who was hoping the military would be a stepping stone to a better life in America.

He was killed in Iraq May 18 when another soldier’s gun discharged while he was cleaning it and the bullet struck him in the chest.

Sahib’s family came to the United States from Guyana in 1988, and his sister Nafeeza, 18, said he dreamed of going to college and becoming an FBI agent. “He did it (join the military) so it could help him more in life,” she said. “He really wanted the training.”

Sahib, who was nicknamed Smiley by his younger cousins and friends, joined the military nearly three years ago. His relatives and friends said they had not heard from him since he called in late March to let them know he was being deployed to the Middle East. They said he was scared of what lay ahead of him.

“He called me before he left and he told me how he was scared,” said Amitt Permaul, 18, Sahib’s best friend. “I was just asking his sister the other day, ‘When is he coming back, when is he coming back?’ ” Sahib, a U.S. resident, expected to become a citizen following his return from overseas.

— Associated Press