Names, Stories, and Pictures of the Fallen Heroes of Operation Iraqi Freedom

The Pentagon has just released the names of two more US Marines who were killed in Iraq. I'll post as soon as I find that.

Marine Cpl. Erik H. Silva

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2096826/detail.html

'Carrot Capital' Loses A Native Son To War With Iraq

LOS ANGELES -- The last time Erik Silva visited his Imperial Valley hometown of Holtville, the 23-year-old Marine attended the annual carrot festival and got a blessing from his grandmother before being deployed to Iraq.

Silva, whose family had long designed and entered a float in the town fair, was honoring a family tradition -- while at the same time seeking support from his close-knit Mexican-American family.

On Thursday, two months after that visit, Cpl. Erik H. Silva, an infantry rifleman based at Camp Pendleton, died in combat when his platoon was ambushed, said his brother Isaac Silva.

As word of his death spread, grief-stricken relatives quickly gathered at the family home in this small agricultural town 125 miles east of San Diego that is known as California's Carrot Capital.

The youngest of four children, Erik Silva was born in the Imperial Valley town of Raleigh and graduated from Holtville High, where he played the trumpet, was a drum major and a member of the varsity golf team.

"He was my baby brother," said Isaac Silva, 28. "He joined the Marines mainly because he wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement. The best way to do that is to join the military."

His family's roots to the town of 5,612 residents date to 1961, when his father, Javier Silva, moved to the area from Aguas Calientes, Mexico, at age 11.

His father is a truck driver who transports cement. His mother, Gloria, whose heritage is Mexican and Yaqui Indian, is a teacher's aide.

In joining the military, Silva followed in the footsteps of his brother Isaac, an Air Force veteran now in the National Guard, and his sister, Gloria, who is in the Navy. His eldest brother, Javier Jr., works for a cable company.

When the young Marine last returned home for a few weeks in late January and early February, Isaac Silva said he and his brother had a sobering talk, acknowledging the risks of war.

"It wasn't the normal, 'Hey bro, let's go have a few beers.' It was the 'Do you have everything set. Do you have all your papers in order... Where can I find it in case of an emergency,"' he recalled. "It was a very serious, deep conversation and it needed to be done. It relieves a lot of stress."

During his visit, Erik Silva spent time with his extended family, including his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, relatives said.

From his 72-year-old grandmother, Rebeca Silva, he sought a special blessing before going to war. She made the sign of the cross on his head, kissed him and said a prayer with him, relatives recalled.

"He valued my mom's blessing very much," said his aunt Elvira Silva.

In keeping with family tradition, the Silvas also built a float for this year's carrot parade. Erik Silva helped prepare the float, which paid tribute to a local businessman who had died.

The theme for this year's festival: "Holtville, a small town with a big heart."

Army Capt. James F. Adamouski

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=19568&paper=0&cat=104

War in Iraq Claims Life of Lee High Grad
Army Capt. James Adamouski is first war fatality from Fairfax County
By Mike Salmon

Jimmy Adamouski's leadership qualities are what Laura Griffith felt would lift her brother to the Oval Office one day. That opportunity will never happen as U.S. Army Capt. James Adamouski became the victim of a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday, April 2. The loss left the Springfield family in mourning.

"He had this quality, this aura, Griffith said. "He would have been the first Polish-Catholic president."

Adamouski's determination to graduate from West Point was an early sign of those leadership qualities. A 1991 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, he was president of the senior class, according to his father Francis J. Adamouski Jr.

An only son, James Adamouski had three sisters. In addition to Laura, there was Karen Marion, 33, and Jaclyn, 24.
"They all went to him with their problems. Jimmy was always the leader," Francis Adamouski said.

According to information released by the Department of Defense, Adamouski was one of six U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, who were on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter which crashed in central Iraq.
The Adamouski family got word of the accident on Thursday, April 3 and immediately drove to Georgia, where the 3rd Aviation Regiment is based.

Francis Adamouski looked at his son's determination and attitude as potential lessons for the younger generation. "I think the story of his life would be a great help to the younger generation," he said.

This wasn't the first time that James Adamouski was in harm's way. He went to Bosnia three times and Albania once. But his mother Judith Adamouski felt uneasy about the deployment to Iraq. "This deployment bothered me a lot, I didn't have good vibes," she said.

When she expressed concern to her son, he said, "I'll fly low and I'll fly fast."

ADAMOUSKI, 29, had been married seven months to the former Meighan Lacey, a fellow graduate of Lee High School. Although the two did not know each other well at Lee, Griffith felt the circumstances behind their relationship were unique. Griffith met Meighan while working at Outback Steakhouse in Springfield and introduced the two.
"They didn't know each other," Griffith said. "I was the one who introduced them. We all went out. Afterward she said 'I'm going to be Mrs. James Adamouski.'"

At Lee, Adamouski loved soccer but played football one year for the Lancers as the kicker. Mary Schaefer, a teacher at Lee for the past 22 years, remembers Adamouski. She taught earth science at the time and when the class broke into lab groups, he was a natural leader.

"He would take charge of them, he always did it in a very pleasant way," she said.

As far as a future president of the United States, Schaefer thought that was possible as well.

"That's not far-fetched at all," she said. "He did have the potential of being president. It was a tragic loss. We have truly lost someone that might have done wonderful things for our country."

All of his school years, James Adamouski was obsessed with perfect attendance, Griffith remembered. Once, while a seventh grader at Key Middle School, he missed the bus and called a cab. When they arrived at school, James Adamouski realized he did not have enough money, but the cab driver understood.

"Typical Jimmy," said Griffith, of her brother's persistence.

James Adamouski planned on completing his master's in business administration and had been selected to teach economics at West Point.

When the Army is through investigating the crash, the family will have a service at The Church of Nativity in Burke the evening prior to a burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Griffith suffers from multiple sclerosis and Meighan Adamouski requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her husband's name to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.

Army Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class Erik A. Halvorsen

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/Stories/0,1413,104~8676~1298009,00.html

Hometown pilot dies in Iraq
By JOHN LeMAY
Staff Writer

BENNINGTON -- An Army pilot born and raised in Bennington died Wednesday when the Black Hawk helicopter he was flying crashed near the city of Karbala on the Euphrates River.
Chief Warrant Officer 4th Class Erik A. Halvorsen, 40, was a career soldier who graduated from Mount Anthony Union High School in 1981. He joined the Army after earning a B.S. in electronic engineering at the University of Hartford in 1986.

"My son was a wonderful person," said his mother, Dorothy Halvorsen of Stonehedge Drive. "He was brave, he was caring, and he loved flying. I was always very proud of him."

The helicopter crash, which happened 50 miles south of Baghdad in a region of heavy combat, is still being investigated. The crash killed four soldiers, injured four and left one missing, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Halvorsen's death was the first Vermont fatality of the war in Iraq, said Col. James J. Boutin of the Vermont National Guard, the officer assigned to inform Dorothy Halvorsen of her son's death.

"I know he was quite a soldier. He was thought of pretty highly. He was pretty skilled," said Boutin. The warrant officer branch of the Army is known for its technical expertise, he said.

Halvorsen, who served with an aviation regiment of the third Army infantry division, was stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. prior to the war in Iraq. He had once been stationed in Korea and had served in Bosnia and in Operation Desert Storm, his mother said.

Dorothy Halvorsen, a former MAUHS guidance counselor who is now a broker with Hoisington Realty, knew that her son's latest assignment was different from previous ones.

"I had a bad feeling since the time he left," she said. "He knew he was going to a dangerous place. He kind of prepared things so if he didn't come back we would know what to do."

Erik Halvorsen placed his personal effects and important papers in storage, and arranged it so his family could retrieve them, she said.

"He was a man of few words, but those actions ..., " she said, her voice trailing off. "He was very somber when he left."

Halvorsen leaves three sisters - Brenda Halvorsen, 41, of Lake Worth, Fla., Karen Loebe, 45, of Petaluma, Calif., and Ingrid Halvorsen, 43, of Delmar, N.Y. Their father, Halvor A. Halvorsen, lives in Richmond, Maine. Their maternal grandmother, Antonia Robidoux, lives at Bennington Health and Rehabilitation.

Erik Halvorsen had been married and divorced, and had no children.

Letters were an important part of the family's life during Halvorsen's final days. He wrote many letters, and was frustrated that he couldn't phone or e-mail, his mother said.

When she learned Thursday afternoon of her son's death, she had just completed a letter to the editor of the Banner, in which she said that she had opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but urged everyone to support the U.S. troops who "have been asked to do a job and are responding responsibly to that request."

The final letter she received from her son came from Kuwait, just before the war started. In it, he expressed hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Iraq.

Brenda Halvorsen, at home in Lake Worth, wondered aloud if her brother had gotten her final letters to him.

"He was my only brother," she said, sobbing. But she fought back the tears to say she fully supports U.S. policy in Iraq.

"I fully supported it. I'm not angry, by any means. It's what he wanted to do.

"I can't accept the death yet but he died in a very honorable way. I'm very proud of him. He was trying to make our country a safer place to live."

She said she was unable to sleep Wednesday night after hearing on the news that a Black Hawk UH-60 had crashed.

"I just knew. I cried," she said.

Boutin, who notified Dorothy Halvorsen of her son's death, is a Pownal resident. As a former teacher at MAUHS, Boutin remembers Erik Halvorsen as a student. Boutin was also a co-worker of Dorothy Halvorsen when she was a guidance counselor.

"It's not an easy duty, that's for sure," Boutin said. It was the first time he has had to perform the duty. He arrived at Dorothy Halvorsen's house at 2:45 p.m. Thursday, and waited a short time for her to return home, he said.

Along with flying, Erik Halvorsen loved skiing, his mother said.

"He wrote and said he was sorry he couldn't be here because it was such a good year for skiing - but he was home for Christmas and he skied for a week."

Army Chief Warrant Officer Scott Jamar

http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/040803dnmetjamarob.41882.html

Texas soldier killed in Iraq loved flying
Pilot, 32, who died in copter crash was head of class in Sweetwater

By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News

Scott Jamar was a resolute young man who dreamed of being a helicopter pilot.

When his Army physical determined that he was too tall from the waist up to qualify, he became a flight engineer. Shortly before the end of his six-year enlistment, he decided to reapply for helicopter flight training, just in case. He made the cut and re-enlisted.

Chief Warrant Officer Jamar, 32, was one of six soldiers killed Wednesday when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter he was piloting crashed in central Iraq. The crash is still being investigated.

"He loved flying," said his father, Wayne Jamar of Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth.

Born in Abilene, Chief Warrant Officer Jamar grew up in Sweetwater, Texas, where he was an outstanding student, his father said. He was class president, head of the choir and a member of the track and football teams.

Arlon Barnes, who coached the teen on the offensive line at Sweetwater High School, remembers a hard-working student.

"He wasn't the most gifted athlete we've had come through, but he stayed with the program, and by his senior year he was playing for us," Mr. Barnes said. "Everybody liked Scott."

After graduating from high school in 1989, Chief Warrant Officer Jamar attended Southwest Texas State University.

Mr. Jamar remembers learning that his son decided to enlist.

"He called me up one day and said, 'You're wasting your money and my time. I'm not sure what I want to do. I'm going to drop out and join the Army and become a helicopter pilot.' "

Shawn Chittum of Sweetwater wasn't surprised that his friend since grade school became a pilot.

"He was a go-getter," Mr. Chittum said. "Nothing came to him. He made everything happen that he did. If there was something he wanted to do, you better watch out because he was going to do it."

His friend finished at the top of his class at pilot school and in becoming a chief warrant officer, Mr. Chittum said.

After becoming a pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Jamar was stationed in Korea for a year. In November, he returned to Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Ga., where his former wife was caring for their two sons.

On Super Bowl Sunday, he was shipped out to Kuwait. Services are pending.

In addition to his father, Mr. Jamar is survived by his stepmother, Jennifer Jamar of Granbury; two sons, Brennan Jamar and Kyle Jamar; a sister, Elizabeth Jamar, of Granbury; his mother, Aggie Oldfields, of Belen, N.M.; a stepsister, Sally Orozco, of Belen; and a stepbrother, Paul Allen, of Birmingham, Ala.

Army Sgt. Michael F. Pedersen

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/ap_newfullstory.asp?ID=6560

Friends, relatives remember Flint native killed in Iraq

The Associated Press - FLINT, Mich.

Sgt. Michael Pedersen was remembered Monday as a practical joker who loved basketball and was considered a hero by his younger siblings.

Pedersen, 26, a Flint native, was one of six soldiers killed in the crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter last week during a fire fight in Iraq.

The one thing we have right here, right now, today is that my son touched the lives of so many people, said Pedersens mother, Lila Lipscomb, 48.

A group of relatives and friends stood on the familys front porch, which was adorned with five yellow ribbons and an American flag flapping in the cold breeze, during a memorial to Pedersen. Clutching candles fitted inside paper cups, the more than 20 mourners sang Amazing Grace and said prayers.

Some wore T-shirts embossed with different pictures of Pedersen accompanied by words such as son, friend, and brother.

He was a hero before he died. ... He was a man of his word and everybody loved him, said his brother Howard Lipscomb Jr., 21.

Pedersen joined the Army after graduating from Northern High School in 1996. His wife Chanel Pedersen said he served in Hawaii, flying Black Hawks, before the family moved to Georgia in 2000. She said he was sent to Kuwait in January ahead of the war with Iraq.

Chanel Pedersen, 24, lives in Savannah, Ga., with the couples 7-year-old daughter, Destiny. Reached by phone over the weekend, she described her husband as a great father and an excellent soldier. The couple had been separated at the time of his death.

His sister, Jennifer Pedersen, 30, said when the option for enlisting in the Army came up, Michael Pedersen just knew it was right for him. She said the last time she saw him, he hugged her two daughters and she said she somehow knew she might not see him again.

He knew what he had to do. As long as he was doing what he wanted to do he was OK, Jennifer Pedersen said.

She said her 11-year-old daughter inherited his love of sports and he made sure she had the right equipment for basketball.

Pedersens stepfather Howard Lipscomb Sr., said Pedersen often played a rough backyard version of the game.

Every other day I was putting up a new goal because they were tearing it down, he said.

We did things. We went fishing, we talked, Lipscomb Sr., said. We had good days, we had bad days. He was my son.

Pedersen and the other soldiers belonged to an aviation unit based at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. The unit is part of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division, which has about 20,000 troops fighting the war.

The crash of the UH-60 Black Hawk is still under investigation. Army officials said the helicopter had been hovering over a fire fight between American and Iraqi forces in central Iraq. Four other soldiers were injured, according to the Pentagon.

Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric A. Smith

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0404story1_news.shtml

'80 Brighton grad dies in downed Black Hawk

By Matthew Daneman and Corydon Ireland
Democrat and Chronicle

A graduate of Brighton High School and Rochester Institute of Technology was among the seven soldiers killed Wednesday when a Black Hawk helicopter went down south of Baghdad.

Eric A. Smith, 42, was a chief warrant officer 3 with the U.S. Army, based in Savannah, Ga. He had been stationed in the Middle East since February.

’’We are as proud of him in death as we were in life. And we were damn proud of him,’’ his brother Mark of Farmington, Ontario County, said tearfully. ‘’God bless America and all his buddies flying Black Hawks.’’

A Defense Department spokesman said he could not comment on the crash or the crew killed. There have been conflicting reports on whether the helicopter, which went down near the central Iraqi city of Karbala, had been shot down, as the Pentagon initially stated. On Thursday, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters that the military didn’t think enemy fire was the cause, Reuters reported.

The Smith family was notified about the death Wednesday. ‘’It’s surrealistic,’’ Mark Smith said. ‘’You can’t believe it. It doesn’t seem true. If I could give this feeling to everyone, we could resolve this (war) really quick.’’

Smith was one of three brothers; the family moved to the Rochester area after their father, a dentist, left the Army. The three brothers grew up in Farmington and Brighton.

Fairport social worker Suzanne Green Luce -- ‘’a very, very dear friend’’ of Smith’s at Brighton High School -- last saw him at the 20th anniversary gathering of the Class of 1980.

“He was in excellent physical shape. He was still the same stand-up guy he was 20 years ago,” she said. “He was true to his word, and a great athlete.”

Smith had played on the school’s soccer team.

He loved flying helicopters, and talking about them, Luce said. “The only saving grace (of his death) is that he died doing what he loved to do.”

Not long after graduating with a degree in business from RIT in 1984, Smith moved to San Diego, where he lived for 18 months with Jon Orgel, a high school chum.

“He ought to be remembered as a hero, as somebody everyone really loved,” said Orgel, now of Greece. “Nobody would say a bad thing about him.”

After a brief, unsatisfying stint with a financial firm, Smith worked as a doorman on a whim at the Improv, an upscale comedy club in San Diego.

Orgel said Smith -- who spent his spare time in San Diego lifting weights -- went up on a test flight with a pilot one day and came home on fire to be a pilot.

The two drove back across country to Rochester in 1987, and Smith enlisted in the Army.

Mark Smith said most of his brother’s time in the military had been spent in relatively safe postings -- as a flight instructor or a personal pilot. This was his first combat-related assignment.

The family didn’t know he had been assigned to hazardous duty. “We thought he was in the back, flying the high brass,” Mark Smith said. He last heard from his brother in February, shortly after his arrival in the Middle East.

Eric Smith never married and had no children. He was two years shy of retirement from the military, Mark said.

Because of recent assignments in South Korea and then Iraq, Eric never saw Mark’s newborn son or a daughter born more than a year ago to the middle brother, Ken, of Rochester. Plans for a family reunion were derailed by the start of war with Iraq.

In Mark’s basement is a care package waiting to be sent to his brother, with Dinosaur BBQ sauce, smoked oysters and other sundries -- “things you’d like if you’re back and alive,” Mark said.

Army Capt. Tristan Aitken

http://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20030408aitken0408p4.asp

For State College captain killed in Baghdad, 'faith was his shield'

By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

A dozen years ago, State College-reared Texas Christian University freshman Tristan Aitken joined the annual student rite of spring and followed the migration to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

But he didn't go to join the party animals. He went to minister to them.

"He went to preach the gospel on the beach," his father, Ronald Aitken, said yesterday. "And that's what he did."

Army Capt. Tristan Aitken recently carried that faith from the sands of Fort Lauderdale to the sands of the Middle East, plumbing it for calm as commander of 217 soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, in Iraq.

"His faith sustained him," his father said. "It was his shield. ... He was a rock."

The family got word over the weekend that Aitken -- 31 years old, a career military man who had been married just 16 months -- was dead. He was killed Saturday by a rocket-propelled grenade shot through the passenger window of a Humvee that he and another soldier were driving near Saddam International Airport outside Baghdad. The soldier with him was critically injured.

Aitken, who was born in the Erie area and raised with his younger sister in State College, was the fourth Pennsylvanian reported killed during the war in Iraq.

But he might have missed duty there altogether.

His service, which included a turn in South Korea, brought him stateside five months ago after a half-year in Kosovo. His replacement officer had been trained, Ronald Aitken said.

But he was shipped out anyway, to oversee medical and munitions supplies and logistics for his battalion

"If he'd had the opportunity, he'd probably have chosen not to go," his father said.

The cards didn't play out that way. And Tristan Aitken was a soldier, a member of a military family taught to take orders and not grumble. His father is retired Navy; his sister is an Army second lieutenant on educational leave.

Years back, at Centre County Christian Academy, where Aitken got most of his schooling before he was packed off to TCU and its ROTC program, he was cool -- "the dark glasses, two thumbs-up" kid, school President Robert Baylor recalled yesterday.

But in a March 21 e-mail to a school chum, he was reflective, "asking for prayers that he bring his men back safely," Baylor said.

And he closed with the "Winner's Creed," the recitation he and academy schoolmates offered back when he ran track and played basketball and soccer there.

"A true winner always give his best, not to the glory of self but always to the glory of God," Aitken wrote.

"He felt he was getting ready for the big game," Baylor said.

Army Sgt. Wilber Davis

http://www.tampatrib.com/MGABI2UP7ED.html

Tampa Solider Killed In Iraq
By KATHY STEELE and WILL RODGERS The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Army Sgt. Wilbert Davis was a strong family man with a lot of love in his heart, said Huiok Davis, his wife of nearly 10 years.
He is also Tampa's first casualty in the war with Iraq.

Davis, 40, was killed Thursday, along with journalist Michael Kelly, when the Humvee they were riding in went into a canal enroute to Baghdad, family members said.

News of Davis' death was not as quick to reach the world as that of Kelly, editor-at-large for The Atlantic Monthly and a columnist for The Washington Post.

Although the graduate of Tampa Bay Tech still does not appear on official casualty lists, his family was notified Friday.

A representative from MacDill Air Force Base notified Davis' mother and a daughter that Davis was driving with Kelly, an embedded journalist, when they died, said Davis' brother Bob Davis, director of the Upward Bound and College Outreach programs at the University of South Florida.

Wilbert Davis, who joined the military in the mid-1980s, was part of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

Knowing he would be directly in harm's way, Davis still looked forward to serving when he left Fort Stewart in Hinesville, Ga., for Kuwait two months ago, Huiok Davis said.

``I don't know what to say. He was that dedicated,'' she said.

Huiok, 43, said she met her husband in Texas. The couple and their two children, Terry, 13, and Wil, 8, moved to Hinesville 15 months ago, she said.

Terry Davis said he will miss his father helping him build model cars. Before leaving for the Middle East, Wilbert Davis had remodeled Terry's bedroom.

``My dad was a nice man, and he tried to help everybody he could when he could,'' Terry said. ``He loved his family very much.''

Wilbert Davis also had two daughters living in Tampa, Shantell, 20, and Shatika, 21.

``He was a very competitive, very independent person,'' his brother Bob, said. ``He was a person who had goals and was determined to reach those goals.''

At age 12, he was the pitcher when the Belmont Heights Little League went to the World Series, said Bob Davis, who also noted his brother was glad to go to Iraq.

He felt he was doing something positive, Davis said.

The soldier, who worked for Tampa Electric Co. before joining the Army, had served at military bases in Korea and Germany.

Details of the accident that killed Davis are sketchy.

Son Terry said the Army told his mother that his father and the journalist were riding across a bridge in the Humvee when it flipped and landed in a canal. He said the family wasn't told how the vehicle overturned.

Wilbert Davis was the fifth child of eight. Four, including Bob Davis, are still in Tampa.

One brother, Saul, is owner of Saul Davis Printing Co.

Army Capt. Edward J. Korn

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2003/04/14/news/pm2.txt

Bowman woman's brother buried from Ft. Knox

By The T&D Staff and Associated Press
FORT KNOX, Ky. -- Capt. Edward J. Korn never backed away from a challenge, and his volunteering to serve in Iraq was a glowing example of his bravery, Korn's former commanders said at a memorial service Friday, April 11.

Korn, 31, of Savannah, Ga., was killed in action in Iraq on April 3 while inspecting the wreckage of an Iraqi tank which was demolished by his unit.

"I referred to him as one of my pack mules," said Col. Robert Gahagan, chief of staff for the Army's Armor Center and Fort Knox. He was "the kind of guy that you could keep putting things on his back, and he'll keep walking with it. He led from the front, and he personified everything that's good in our young officers and our young captains today."

Korn's family, including his parents and his sister, Darlene Holt, of Bowman, attended the hour-long service at Fort Knox's 100-year-old Main Post Chapel. The family declined to speak with reporters after the service, which attracted more than 250 people, mostly active duty soldiers and Marines in their camouflaged fatigues.

Army officials have released no other information about Korn's death.

Holt said Monday she was told her brother was accidentally killed while he was out of his tank. According to what she was told, Korn was hit when other Iraqi units appeared and tried to engage the U.S. tanks.

Korn's black boots, M-16 rifle and helmet were arranged at the altar in the church, next to plaques holding several awards and photographs. Included was a plaque Korn received in December for helping decorate the post's headquarters building during Christmas.

Korn worked at Fort Knox as an operations officer for the secretary of the general staff while waiting to attend an officer course there. But he elected to skip that training in March to accept a position with Central Command and from there, went to the 64th Armor, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

"He volunteered to join the Army while still in high school. That was his life, he was constantly volunteering," said Major John R. Zsido, Korn's direct supervisor at Fort Knox.

Zsido said as war in Iraq was brewing earlier this year, Korn was constantly in his ear, asking to go.

"He'd come to me and say, 'Sir, you've got to know someone, can you call someone?' because he wanted to join the war effort," Zsido said.

Zsido said once Korn learned that Fort Knox was in need of an officer to send to Central Command in Doha, Qatar, he "knew that was his ticket.

"He knew if he could get to Central Command, that he could work his way into a unit and work his way to the front, which is exactly what he did," Zsido said.

Korn first came to Fort Knox in 1988, for the Army's basic training. He served in the Persian Gulf War, and earned a bronze star while there.

Sgt. Douglas E. Kennedy, who worked with Korn last summer at Fort Knox, said Korn would have made general someday.

"He came in and took the bull by the horns and accepted every mission he was given," Kennedy said. "He was very analytical minded. It's a good trait for a battlefield commander, and he would have been a great battlefield commander."

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