Facing Our Losses - Iraq 2005

1,356th to die, Jan. 13, 2005—Army Sgt. 1st Class Brian A. Mack, 36, of Phoenix, died in Mosul, Iraq, when his military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. Mack, married with a daughter, was assigned to the Stryker Brigade's 25th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis. He had been in the service since age 20, according to his family. The Fort Lewis-related Web site StrykerNews.com posted letters from a dozen members of other families who knew and loved Mack. "My son Andrew considered him a great friend, leader and a brave soldier who instilled the best on his soldiers and had the ability to make them braver," wrote a woman who said her son was at the scene when Mack was killed. Known to some soldiers and friends as Daddy Mack for his mentoring skills, Mack left behind a regiment of admirers, as well as a widow and teen daughter. At a Fort Lewis memorial, former brigade Sgt. Maj. Carlton Dedrich said Mack "was the one I sent soldiers to when they wanted to be better. He was the best, and he loved to train soldiers. He was the most passionate leader and soldier that I ever met."

1,342nd to die, Jan. 4, 2005—Army Pfc. Curtis L. Wooten III, 20, of Spanaway, Pierce County, died after being hit by shrapnel in Balad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle. Wooten was assigned as a tank gunner to the 1st Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, posted in Schweinfurt, Germany. Born in Fort Riley, Kan., to Army parents, Wooten was a 2002 Spanaway Lake High grad who played sports and joined the military in part to help his family financially. "He wanted to make my burden easier," said his mother, Dairyene. Added his father, Curtis Wooten Sr.: "I feel pride in his service because he followed what I did, but it sucks that it ends this way." His friend, Michael Parker, remembered Wooten as high-spirited but, like many soldiers, sobered by war's reality. "He told me, 'They got me over here killing people I don't know,'" said Parker. Wooten "always had to be paranoid, on guard, seven days a week, 24 hours a day," to survive.

1,338th to die, Jan. 4, 2005—Army Pvt. Cory R. Depew, 21, of Beech Grove, Ind., died in Mosul, Iraq, when his Stryker military vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Depew, a cavalry scout who had wanted to be in the service since he was an eighth grader, according to his family, was assigned to Fort Lewis' 25th Infantry Division Stryker Brigade combat team. He joined the Army in December 2003, the year he graduated from high school, and was sent to Fort Lewis in May 2004. Divorced, with an 18-month-old son, Depew had spent some of his last days at home, in October 2004, helping build a church peace garden. "He knew times were going to get tough," said his mother, Ann May. But, "He never felt like he was in danger. At age 21, they think they are invincible."