Facing Our Losses - Iraq 2007

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3,880th to die: Nov. 30, 2007 – Army Sgt. Blair Emery, 24, a Fort Lewis military policeman from Lee, Maine, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Baqouba, Iraq. He’d been stationed at Fort Lewis since 2003 and was with the 571st Military Police Company. Emery was due to get out in October but, as part of the troop-surge strategy, his and other soldiers’ deployments were extended three months. “He got killed in the extension, and it really hurts,” said his father, Earl Emery. “If he could have been out of there on time, he could have been in Maine, home with us.” His family remembered Emery as a star high school baseball player who followed his two sisters into the Army. One of his grandfathers served in World War II, the other in Korea, and two uncles served in Vietnam. An aunt was a military police officer and Emery met and married a woman who was then serving in the Army. “He was a jokester,” said sister Betsy Siegfried. “If he thought he could do something goofy to make you smile and laugh, he was going to do it.” But, added his father, “When you see the casket roll off the plane, when you first see the appearance of the American flag over the casket, it hurts. It hurts. That's your son inside that casket, and you can never talk to him again.”

3,873rd, 3,874th and 3,875th to die: Nov. 18, 2007 – Army Pfc. Marius L. Ferrero, 23, of Miami, Cpl. Jason T. Lee, 26, of Fruitport, Mich., and Cpl. Christopher J. Nelson, 22, Rochester, Thurston County, were killed while reportedly handing out candy and toys from a military vehicle to children in Baqouba, Iraq, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives. All were Stryker Brigade soldiers from Fort Lewis. Ferrero joined the Army early this year and arrived at Fort Lewis in July. Officials said he'd been in Iraq only a few days, having celebrated Thanksgiving with his family in Florida. "He wanted us to give him a Thanksgiving dinner, and it seemed like it was a farewell," said his mother Maribel Ferrero. "Sometimes you get a feeling." Ferrero was a ROTC member in high school and his grandfather had been in the Cuban military before Fidel Castro's takeover. Lee, married, joined the Army in May 2005 and was deployed with the 4th Stryker Brigade in May for a 15-month tour in Iraq. "He said he could see a difference from when he got there," said his father, Thomas Lee. "He said, 'Dad, I'm making a difference.'" Nelson, who'd been in the service four years, graduated from and played football at Rochester High School in 2003, and married in 2005 just prior to the Seahawks' Super Bowl game (he was a big Seahawks fan and figured the Super Bowl would help him remember his wedding date). "He was always very upbeat, positive and very respectful," said Rochester athletic director Al Shele. "He just had a great personality."

3,868th to die: Nov. 14, 2007 - Army Sgt. Kenneth R. Booker, 25, of Vevay, Ind., died in Mukhisa, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Lewis. He joined the Army after graduating from high school in 2000 and previously deployed to Afghanistan. "He was a very good son," said his mother, Becky Graham. "He never gave me any trouble." She recalled he downplayed the dangers of Iraq. "He always told me, 'It's pretty dull here,"' she said. Once, when talking to him on the telephone, there was a loud explosion on his end. He asked if his mother had heard it; she said yes and asked what it was. "Just another explosion," the soldier said.

3,864th and 3,865th to die: Nov. 13, 2007 – Army Sgt. Christopher R. Kruse, 23, of Emporia, Kan., and Cpl. Peter W. Schmidt, 30, of Eureka, Calif., died Nov. 13 in Mukhisa, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated during dismounted combat operations. They were assigned to the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Lewis. Kruse, a graduate of Dodge City High, was married and had two children. He was remembered by family friend Jack Schultz "as sweet, brave and shy." His sacrifice in Iraq "was his final selfless act of love," Schultz said. "It was for the love of his family and for the love of his country." Schmidt graduated in 1995 from Arcata High School where he ran cross country for two years and worked on the yearbook staff - the yearbook describes him as a "well-known stud." On his MySpace page, he wrote about hopefully someday returning home to a normal life where people are "not shooting at you every time you are outside, no mortar rounds being shot at you, and wearing whatever clothes I want. Until then, I guess I will just continue to sweat my ass off and try to convince myself that there is a good reason to be fighting this war over here."