Facing Our Losses - Iraq 2004

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1,332nd to die, Dec. 30, 2004—Army National Guard Sgt. Damien Ficek of Pullman, two days short of his 27th birthday on New Year's Day 2005, was killed by small arms fire while on patrol in Baghdad. A member of the Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry Regiment of Spokane, Ficek had spent four years as an Army regular and was a student at Washington State University until 2003, where he was also a sports massage specialist for Cougar athletic teams. Among his duties in Baghdad was to help train Iraqi soldiers. He graduated from Beaverton High in Oregon and was married a year and a half ago. "He was an active member of our community and an excellent student," said WSU President V. Lane Rawlins. Added Ficke's aunt, Joani Dufourd of Oregon: "The world has lost a very, very promising person in Damien Ficek. He was the most incredible man. I don't know how to tell you that any better."

1,330th to die, Dec. 29, 2004—Army Pfc. Oscar Sanchez, 19, assigned to the Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade combat team, was fatally wounded in an enemy suicide bomb attack. Sanchez, who died two days short of his first wedding anniversary, was manning an observation outpost in Mosul when enemy forces launched a two-stage attack: suicide bombers crashing a truck into the outpost, setting off 1,500 pounds of explosives, followed by a second bomber in an explosives-filled car; 14 soldiers were wounded. Sanchez, of Modesto, Calif., joined the service 14 months earlier, at age 18, hoping eventually to help his family financially, relatives said. His mother was killed by her boyfriend when Sanchez was a boy, and he was raised by a caring father. "His hopes and dreams were always to take care of his brother and of getting his things together," said Stella Padilla, a cousin. "A home for his father. A home for his brother."

1,316th, 1,317th, 1,318th, 1,319th, 1,320th, and 1,321st to die, Dec. 21, 2004Army Pfc. Lionel Ayro, 22, of Jeanerett, La.; Spc. Jonathan Castro, 21, Corona, Calif.; Capt. William W. Jacobsen Jr., 31, Charlotte, N.C.; Staff Sgt. Robert S. Johnson, 23, Seaside, Calif.; Staff Sgt. Julian S. Melo, 47, Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Sgt. Darren D. VanKomen, 33, Lewiston, Idaho. All Stryker Brigade soldiers from Fort Lewis, they were among 14 U.S. soldiers killed during a suicide-bomber attack at an Army mess hall near Mosul, Iraq.

Ayro, a devout Baptist"a man who would cry watching The Lion King," said a friendjoined the military with hopes of returning to a better life at home, planning to someday open a trucking business. Said his grandmother, Clementine Ayro: "I've seen these pictures, this thing that's happening, and my grandchild being one of themit's very, very hard."

Castro, who joined up before 9/11, was remembered by friends for his good nature but became disillusioned by the meaninglessness of the war, says his family. When the Army sent him a form to make a statement about his son's honorable death, says father Jorge Castro, "I threw it out. I'm not running for politicianwhy should I lie?"

Conversely, Jacobsen, the father of four who died on his ninth wedding anniversary, was born at Fort Bragg, N.C. To the Stryker Brigade Company A commanderthe first Fort Lewis commander to die in IraqGulf War II is "something he believed in, that we all believe," said his father, Bill, a retired lieutenant colonel.

Johnson, meanwhile, grew up "a man of peace" and a lover of the environment, says his father, Peter Johnson, and he became a soldier determined to do his job as required but, added his father, why was security so seemingly lax at the mess hall? "I believe this [bombing] could have been avoided," he said.

Melo, whose wife and son live in Spanaway, was a former Panamanian Army soldier who relocated to New York and then signed up with the U.S. Army. He was an always-neatly-dressed supply officer "who performed miracles," said a buddy. In a statement, his family said, "He was born to be a soldier but never took anything too seriously. His love for his family, his country, and fellow soldiers was evident in everything he did."

VanKomen, with a wife and stepdaughter in Olympia, grew up in a big family in Idaho, joined and left the service twice, then returned a third time, winding up in the middle of Iraq. His mother, Betty Clemens, recalled her son telling her not to worry about his duty in Iraq: "This is something I'm going to do," he told her, "and something I have trained for, and if I die, that is God's will."

1,288th to die, Dec. 9, 2004—Army Warrant Officer Patrick Leach, 39, a Federal Way native whose parents live in Tacoma, died when an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter collided with a UH-60 Black Hawk on the ground in Mosul, Iraq, killing another solider and injuring four others. Leach, a pilot, was a member of the South Carolina National Guard's 1st Battalion, a unit of Task Force Olympia headquartered at Fort Lewis. In private life an airline pilot, Leach was a veteran of Gulf War I and a graduate of Jefferson High in Federal Way, where he was on the wrestling team. He was married, with five children—two from a previous marriage. Friend Leo Friedwald said, "We lost one of our best. Best friend. Best pilot. Best person. Best guy."