3,465th and 3,466th to die: May 28, 2007 - Army Staff Sgt. Thomas M. McFall, 36, of Glendora, Calif., and Pfc. Junior Cedeno Sanchez, 20, of Miami. were killed in Baghdad when a bomb exploded nearby as they patrolled on foot. They were assigned to 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, a part of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis. McFall's wife, Emily, in a statement, described her husband as"a proud dad, a great son and a friend to many." He was renowned for his barbecued ribs and his fondness for classic rock and cold beer, she said."He loved the brotherhood, and his heart beat red, white, and blue. There was only one exit for him." Cedeno Sanchez was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Puerto Rico and then Florida as a youngster. One of his commanders, Capt. Craig Butera, said the infantryman aspired to attend Ranger school when he got back from Iraq."Had he had the chance, we all know he would have finished Ranger school and would have been a great example of all the character that is embodied in the Rangers," Butera said.
3,457th to die:May 26, 2007 - ArmyPfc. Charles B. Hester, 23, a Stryker soldier from Cataldo, Idaho, died when a bomb detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis. Married with one child, Hester was a music fan, especially enamored by Jimi Hendrix tunes, and"loved the oldies," said former squad leader, Staff Sgt. Chess Johnson."I could never come up with a song that he couldn't come up with the lyrics, perfectly." Army Chaplain Lt. Col. Chris Cieply said Hester and his wife met in the Job Corps., and then joined the Army in 2004. Wife Roxanne told the chaplain, he recalled,"The last thing he told me was I was his world, he'd love me forever, and without me and [daughter] Elizabeth he would be nothing."
3,445th to die:May 25, 2007 - Army Spc. Mathew P. LaForest, 21, a Stryker soldier from Austin, Texas died in Taji, Iraq from small arms fire during combat. His father, Mark LaForest said Mathew was"the most perfect child you could have." LaForest, a retired Air Force officer, said recruiters at LaForest's local high school had told him he wouldn't get sent into combat when he enlisted three months after his graduation."They [recruiters] start treating them like buddies and four years later ... a certain percentage of these kids feel obligated to go into the military," he said."He was told that the Army was a big party place, and he was finding out that it wasn't a big party place."
3,442nd to die: May 24, 2007 - Army Sgt. Iosiwo Uruo, 27, of Agana Heights, Guam, died May 24, in Buhriz, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his unit came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash. Uruo's father said his son joined the Army shortly after high school. Isaoshy Uruo urged his son to go to college because he was good in architecture.
"He told me, 'Dad, I'm sorry, but I want to join the service,'" Uruo said. The son last spoke with his family in late 2006, when he was in Kuwait, his father said.
3,433rd, 3,434th and 3,435th to die: May 22, 2007 - Army Staff Sgt. Kristopher A. Higdon, 25, of Odessa, Texas, Staff Sgt. David C. Kuehl, 27, of Wahpeton, N.D., died and Pfc. Robert A. Worthington, 19, of Jackson, Ga. died in Taji, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit. They were assigned to the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash. Higdon, married with two children, graduated from Permian High School in 1999."He strongly believed in what he did and why we are fighting," said his father, Danny Higdon. Kuehl, also married with two children, would be dearly missed, his family said in a statement."We prayed this day would never come...[he was] a wonderful son, husband, father, brother and uncle..." Worthington had been in the service barely a year, friends and family said."This is not an arbitrary life that has been lived," said Rev. Joshua Sorrows, Worthington's cousin."I pray that we remember the message of his life: To be courageous, to be strong, to value family."
3,403rd and 3,404th to die: May 17, 2007 - Army Pfc. Jonathan V. Hamm of Baltimore, 20, and Pfc. Aaron Daniel Gautier, 19, of Hampton, Va., both Fort Lewis soldiers, both died on the same day in Baghdad. Hamm was killed when his operating base was hit with indirect enemy fire. Gautier died when his mounted patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire and explosives. Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. The unit arrived in Baghdad only weeks earlier as part of the push to curb sectarian violence, officials said. Hamm was a 2004 graduate of Baltimore’s Carver Vocational Technical High School. His father died in 2000 and his mother died in February. “He really loved carpentry when he was at the Vocational Tech,” said his aunt, Eleanor Swan said, noting she couldn't “see him doing anything other than that.” She recalled that Hamm, as a teenager, “liked to get on the bus and the train and just learn his way around the city. He'd make a whole day sightseeing like that. He always wanted to travel more.” Gautier, who was married in January, had joined the Army in 2006. A high school dropout, he obtained his GED just prior to his 18th birthday and then joined the service. Father Dan Gautier said Gautier had long been “kind of infatuated with military service” and considered making it a career. “He was growing into a fine young man and wonderful husband,” his father said. “He would have been a wonderful father.”
