Facing Our Losses - Iraq 2005

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2,134th to die, Dec. 7, 2005—Marines Cpl. Joseph Bier, 22, of Centralia, was killed by a homemade bomb in Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), and died after the Humvee he was driving was hit by the roadside device during a combat operation. Three others were wounded. A machine gunner originally with the 1st Marine Division based in Twentynine Palms, Calif., Bier served a stint on the security detail at Bangor Submarine Base before winding up in Iraq. In an interview with the Marine Corps News, he said, "I thought, 'Finally, I get to do what Marines do.' It took me three years to get here, but I am glad to finally deploy." Actually, he was a little surprised at what he found, he said. "I expected this place to be a little more hectic, to have more enemy contact. I'm a little disappointed; I think it's a little quiet. I expected more to happen here. It's not like what is shown on TV." In a statement, his family said: "Joe was a challenging child to raise because he was always trying to live to his potentials and occasionally beyond them. … Few men live a life they love and die doing what they love among friends and brothers they love." For Bier's memorial service, community members lined up with flags along Centralia's Belmont Street in silent remembrance.

2,105th and 2,106th to die, Nov. 24, 2005—Army Staff Sgt. Steven C. Reynolds, 32, of Jordan, N.Y., and Pfc. Marc Delgado, 21, of Lithia, Fla., were killed on Thanksgiving Day in Baghdad. They were responding to a report of corpses in a suburban area when their Hummer hit a bomb in the road and flipped over into a canal. Both were assigned to the 170th Military Police Company, 42nd Military Police Brigade, based at Fort Lewis. Reynolds, an avid fisherman when young, was a 1992 graduate of Jordan-Elbridge High School and had long wanted to be a soldier, said his mother, Shirley Reynolds. "He was so happy when he got his orders to go overseas," she recalled. His father, Norman, said Steve did hazardous work, knocking down doors and searching for weapons. But, "He was doing what he really loved." Delgado's mother, Ellen, recalled that her son's first e-mail from Iraq read: "We just got shot at and it was sooo cool." The mother said her reaction was, "Oh, my God, my son thinks he's invincible." She had wanted Marc to go into the Navy after graduating from Durant High, as his brother did, but he wanted to join the Army like his father, she said. Ellen Delgado also recalled her son's last e-mail: "He said he was ready to come home."

2,067th and 2,068th to die, Nov. 11, 2005—Army Cpl. Donald E. Fisher II, 21, of Tacoma, and Pfc. Antonio Mendez, 22, of Puerto Rico, both Fort Lewis soldiers, were killed in a convoy vehicle collision near Kirkut, Iraq. Fisher's father, Donald, a disabled Army vet, said his son was committed to the American war effort in Iraq. "We're talking about a kid who, as a kid, cried because someone stole the flag off our flagpole." The son joined the Army shortly after graduating from high school. He was on his second duty tour in Iraq, which had been scheduled to end within a month. Mendez enlisted in the Army in June 2004. He arrived at Fort Lewis in October that year. "He said it was boring over there, so he was volunteering for every mission," said his father, Carmelo. "There were only 14 trucks, and he hated to sit around. He made me send him his Nintendo. … He had a beautiful heart." Both men were serving their first deployment in Iraq and were assigned to the 40th Transportation Company, 593rd Corps Support Group. They were the first from the company to die in the war. Fisher's older brother, Robert, is also stationed at Fort Lewis, and his sister is a member of the Washington National Guard at Camp Murray.

1,903rd to die, Sept. 19, 2005Army Reserve Sgt. 1st Class Lawrence Morrison Sr., 45, was killed by a roadside bomb near Taji, Iraq. A postal worker from Yakima, Morrison was married with a son and a stepson. He was recalled to duty as an inactive reservist who had retired from the Army in 1995, having joined just out of high school in 1979. "He always had a smile on his face," said co-worker Gerald Corbray. "We used to sing karaoke together. He couldn't sing, but he could do push-ups." In Iraq, he was assigned as a U.S. Army special operations medic serving with the Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command from Fort Bragg, N.C. His family reports he was born in Ohio, raised in Kentucky, and was a football fanatic. Morrison "represented everything that is good and kind and caring in this world," said Maj. Gen. Herbert Altshuler, at Morrison's funeral service. Said his father, Kenneth: "That boy was an all-American boy." He understood the risks of war, added sister Sherry Dunn: "He had come to terms with it. This is the way he wanted to go." His family said in an obituary that Morrison's son, Larry Morrison II, 19, a private in the Army, will assume his father's scheduled Iraq service rather than accept a hardship waiver.