Dad's dad at Omaha

Sixteen years before my birth. Dad's mom passed from TB three years latter. Though I never new my Grandfather, his sacrifice had a profound impact on me as the son of his orphaned son.

While I have never known anyone as friends that have been killed over while deployed I have worked and provided direct support to missions where we have lost 749.

I would coordinate ISR support when shit it the fan. Many sad days have been had.

This was the worst one for me, as it was the 1st major one I worked: link

SGT Tyrone Chisholm, KIA Tal Afar, Iraq 11 NOV 2005. From Savannah, GA and a classmate of mine. He grew up in the projects and had two kids before he joined. The Army was his way out as it was for many kids in this predicament. He became a tanker within Troop F, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and was killed when multiple IEDs went off near his Abrams.



SGT Myla Maravillosa, KIA Kirkuk, Iraq 24 December 2005. From Wahiwah, HI by way of the Philippines. Her mother immigrated when she was a child. She died taking, literally, a RPG to her truck while in the gun on a mission. She as 97E, HUMINT collector/Interrogator. She is buried in Bohol Province, Philippines.



SGT Rodrigo Mugia-Rivas, KIA Bagram, Afghanistan 21 June 2009. Immigrant from Honduras who moved to Germantown, MD. He was married and died when the Taliban launched rockets at Bagram Airfield and struck our compound (2000Z3M knows it). He was killed alongside SGT Jones (below).



SGT Ricky D. Jones, KIA Bagram, Afghanistan 21 June 2009. From Plantersville, AL. Married with four children. Was killed alongside SGT Rivas



I did not know these Rangers personally but they they died during my tour

PFC Eric Hario, KIA 29 Aug 2009, Sharana, Afghanistan, A/1/75 Ranger Rgt. Killed alongside SSG Dahlke



SSGT Jason S. Dahlke, KIA 29 Aug 2009, Sharana, Afghanistan,  A/1/75 Ranger Rgt. Killed alongside PFC Hario. From Jacksonville, FL.



SGT Robert Daniel Sanchez, KIA 1 Oct 2009, Kandahar, Afghanistan, B/1/75 Ranger Rgt.



And a young man I met ever so briefly...

SPC Joshua Nelson, KIA 16 Sep 2012, Mizan, Afghanistan, D/202nd MI BN, Ft. Gordon, GA. Killed alongside three other Soldiers. From Greenville, NC. Joined the Army in 2011 as a 35S Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) Collection Analyst. He and the three others were killed during an insider attack when Afghans turned on them at a checkpoint. The three others killed there:SGT Sapuro Nena; PFC Genaro Bedoy and PFC Jon Townsend from the 14th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.



His name is memorialized in two places aside from his gravestone.
NSA Cryptographic Memorial


US Army INSCOM Memorial

RIP
Gookie
Donnie

There are more.... but


Ryan Miller LCPL USMC - Sept 14, 2006. Barwanah, Iraq
Adam P. Kennedy, Sgt USA - April 8, 2007. Diwaniyah, Iraq
Mark R. Cannon, HM3 USN - October 2, 2007. Kunar, Afghanistan

The one that hurt the most.

Capt Brandon Cyr, USAF
903d ARS
27APR13

I should have added Kennedy to my list as well.

Walter <redacted> WWII / 1462nd Engineer
Maintenance Company / 3rd ESB (Engineer Special Brigade)



Charles <redacted> USS Chilton



Ralph <redacted> Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 9 / Vietnam



Chris <redacted> USS Carl Vinson / Gulf I



Rest in peace.

Rest in Peace, ladies and gentleman, you've done your nation good.

LCpl James Brown

Jan. 12, 1986
Evansville
Vanderburgh County
Indiana, USA
Death:  Nov. 2, 2006, Iraq

Cool Guy.

US Marines pay respects to  LCpl Chance Phelps USMC
Movie Taking Chance worth a watch

2Lt. Peter Burks
Palehorse Trp, 4th Squadron 2nd Cav Regiment
KIA 14 Nov 2007 Baghdad, Iraq
His Platoon was returning to the Green Zone when an Explosively Formed Penetrator exploded at Entry Control Point 2, killing Lt Burks and wounding a few of the guys in the Stryker. He had been in country for less than a month.


SSG Jeremy Vrooman
Palehorse Trp, 4th Squadron 2nd Cav Regiment
KIA 15 July 2008 Near Baquba, Iraq
Our Platoon was conducting an early morning search of a village (due to heavy IED attacks in the area the previous few weeks). The plan was to drop 4 search teams simultaneously and have them begin searching houses as soon as the Strykers got into the village. SSG Vrooman and his team were 20 seconds ahead of everyone else and entered a house to begin the search. The house exploded, burying SSG Vrooman inside.

Cpl Andrew Brownfield.  KIA March 2004.

IYAOYAS

Spc Joe Alvarez
5-10-1985 x 4-6-2012

Rest easy man.

God bless these souls of these men. They look tough as nails

Where at near Baqubah? I'm pretty sure we were the unit that relieved you and remembered hearing about that when we were doing right seat left seat rides. In fact the pic in my avatar is over Baqubah.

OK I promised I'd post but I know a lot of my brothers whose graves I visit at a number of cemeteries.


Sgt Richard Berg (Uncle) Anzio 1944 buried at Anzio.
SGT Jack Berg Omaha Beach June 6 1944. (Uncle)  Both of the Bergs (cousins) enlisted with my Dad on Dec. 8th 1941.  
LTCDR Vince Lopresti, Port Ballarte North Africa 1943
PFC James Caffrey Berlin 6th Infantry 1961.
SFC Charlie Southard Snoul, Cambodia 1972 My Cousin
SFC Chuck Twomey , 4th Infantry Dak To 1967 My Plt Sgt.
LCpl Jorge Salcido, I Corps VN 1966.  Jorgie volunteered to go retrieve the bodies of his friends killed a day before, he was killed by a short round.
SP4 Bobby Armbruster, Agent Orange in 1970 died in Phoenix VA in 1989, I was his current Platoon Sgt and spent as much time with him as I was allowed.
Ist LT. David Pimple Helo pilot Korea 1989.  My nephew.
SFC Jimmy Thode, Khost Provience AStan 2011  Picture of Jimmy Thode in 1989 when I was his platoon Sgt

These are some of the soldiers killed in my battalion in 2008-9 in Afghanistan.
I knew all of them, most were my friends.

I was in the same basic training platoon with Preston Medley.  He left behind an infant daughter and a wife pregnant with Preston Jr.
Nathan Cox left behind his wife and 5 year old daughter.
Cory Bertrand, Joseph Gonzales, and Michael Dinterman were 3 of only 5 American 18 year-olds killed in Afghanistan at that point, all in separate incidents in summer/fall of 2008.


Justin Antisdel passed away at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after being wounded in Iraq with 2-22 IN, 10th Mountain division.  Justin was in my platoon in Korea.
He left behind his wife and young son, Curtis.

Giann Joya, he still wasn't an American citizen when I met him a year before his death.  Giann was in my platoon in Korea.


John Sigsbee, killed in Iraq with 1-32 cavalry.  I met John before basic training, we lined up next to each other (alphabetically) in all of those lines at 30th AG

We were based out of Warhorse and had our COP at the Diyala Media Center.

Early 08 one of our sister squadrons (I want to say it was 3rd), lost 6 guys to one HBIED. The unit we relieved told us to just not go into houses and just call in an air strike on them if empty but noooooooo. We had to learn the lesson the hard way.

CSM Steven Faulkenburg
CPT Sean Simms
1LT Iwan
All killed storming fallujah in Nov 2004

PFC George J Howell
SGT Marvin Sprayberry


Just finished up flags in at ANC yesterday. My second year doing it as a member of the old guard

"Go in peace my brothers, into God's arms.  May your weary souls finally find sanctuary in His embrace.  I will carry your load from here until we meet again."

GySgt Bill "Wild Man" Ressler, I will see you again my friend.  Grandpa, I know you're on post watching over me, and I appreciate it.  To my friends who are waiting for me for that last staff call, I'll see you again when my tour is over here.

SSG Michael W. Hosey  died in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire, 17 Sept 2011. He was assigned to the 3rd BN/1SFG Lewis-McChord, Wash.  

I never got a chance to meet Mike. He was the son of my father's friend. couple years behind me in school. went A/D after Highschool.
I did go to his service.

Yep we (batallion) was out of warhorse pad 17.5... All the company's were at JCOPS. I was at key west. I believe our A Co. went where you guys were at

I'll post this for us Coasties



DC3 Nate Bruckenthal



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bruckenthal

Bump for us

These are the heroes who didn't make it home from Ar Ramadi. We can thank modern medicine and quick evacs because this list is much smaller than it could have been.

Sgt. Jeffers aka Mundy slept across my bunk when we were in the same squad. I remember the day. We were both going on two different missions. We made some kinda of joke and I said cya later Mundy. Not even 30 minutes later on the radio we had two severely injured and one KIA.

I don't like this picture, it betrays their personalities. Especially SSG Lorenzo, who was one of the nicest and funniest guys. He didn't have to be friendly and helpful to an overwhelmed 2LT but he was.

SSG Saburant Parker
SPC Bryan Barron
SPC Audrey Lunsford
SPC Daniel Varnado

All killed 23 May 2005 by an IED in Haswah Iraq


1LT Robert Oneto-Sikorski

31 October 2005. Killed by an IED while conducting a foot patrol outside Haswah Iraq

There are 13 more from my brigade. These 5 were in my company, and my friends. Yesterday was tough. I was able to go to the national cemetery in Biloxi and see three of them. The other two, and 13 are in my thoughts.

SPC Wilfred Flores Jr - March 31, 2007






 

R.I.P - SSG David H Gutierrez 25/12/2009 OEF 9-11
R.I.P - SPC Kyle J Wright 13/01/2010 OEF 9-11
R.I.P - PFC Jonathan C Yanney 18/08/2009 OEF 9-11

posted for CWG

 

Stephen William Castner
KIA Jul 24 2006
Tallil, Iraq
US Army

IED Strike to Humvee while conducting convoy security.  First mission out the gate for our unit.  I was RTO at Camp Cedar II and took first KIA report from crew for our deployment.

SSGT Eugene Mitchell, 197th FA, KIA 4/03/1945 Germany

TM3 Phillip DiTerisi, USS Shelton(DE407), KIA 10/03/1944 Morotai Island, Philippines

PVT Benjamin Hooper, Co C/6th MS Inf CSA, KIA 11/30/1864 Franklin, TN

PVT James Hooper, US Continental Army, KIA 10/07/1780 Kings Mountain, SC

Bump back to page 1

Scott Lamana
9/11/01
Pentagon

Served with me at our FD while at LSU
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2001/Nov/25/hpa_b.jpg
I hope this bomb hurt!

This thread shouldn't be on Page 3.

For Darrellbear

I feel for you man, I am also a twin, he is my soul mate, the one person I have known for the longest time.
There is just that bond between twins.

page one please
OIF 1, 2, 3,4  2003-2006
AFG 2011

2 November 2003. Chinook crash near Fallujah