Based: Oakdale, Calif.
1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, 40th Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 24, 2005
Baghdad (military hospital), Iraq
Married, 2 children
Gender: Male
Hometown: Antioch
High School: Antioch High (Antioch)
Scheile was the center of a "huggy, kissy family," his sister said, doting on his nieces, devoted to his in-laws and never too busy to help friends and neighbors....Read the whole LA Times story here.
A resident of Antioch in Northern California, Scheile was a 17-year veteran of the National Guard whose career reflected his itch for action.
He patrolled Los Angeles' volatile streets during the 1992 riots. He was sent to Kuwait on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the World Trade Center attacks. His deployment to Iraq began in August 2004 and -- after being extended twice -- was due to end next month.
Scheile was a front-line combat leader, and among soldiers who served with him his death hit especially hard. "He really took care of his soldiers, and not just on a military level," said Thomas Feemster, a former guardsman who spent six months in Kuwait with Scheile.
"He always made sure your gear and everything was just right ... to make sure you were safe. He got to know every guy on his squad. He'd check and see if everything was OK with your family, sit and talk about your problems. He was always willing to teach somebody what he knew, and he knew a lot."
Just three months before he died, Scheile was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries he suffered last spring in a roadside bombing. He returned to duty with shrapnel still lodged in his face.
His commanders considered him a "get-it-done kind of guy," said Maj. Daniel Markert of Scheile's home base in Oakdale. "He made the system work, or he worked the system -- whatever it took to make sure his soldiers had their needs met."
Scheile's sister said he never complained about being sent to war. "He'd say, 'This is what I've trained for all my life.' He was proud to serve his country. He took the military very seriously," she said.
His sister-in-law, Annie Carroll, said the Antioch native had two passions -- his wife, Jennifer, and the military.From the ContraCosts Times via Iraq.Pigstyle, where you can read the whole thing.
"She talked to him every day through email when he could," Carroll said.
Carroll said Jennifer, her sister, would regularly send Scheile copious bags of candy, which he would hand out to Iraqi children.
"He believed strongly in what he was fighting for," Carroll said. "He was there for peace and believed in rebuilding Iraq."
Scheile had another passion -- fishing, which he shared with his father-in-law, John Beason.
In April, Beason, a member of the North Arkansas Fly Fishers in Mountain Home, Ark., raised money to donate fishing equipment to his son-in-law's unit. Scheile, an angling enthusiast, planned to organize a fishing derby when the gear arrived.
But ever mindful of the dangers of a job that shrouded even the most innocuous pastime, Scheile reminded his father-in-law in an email, "that fishing is a bit less relaxing in the middle of a war."
Scheile got to use the fishing gear once, Carroll said.
Read more about Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Daniel Ronald Scheile here and here and here.
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