Jesse D. Mizener, Army, Private 1st Class -- Rest In Peace

Jesse D. Mizener, 24

Army, Private 1st Class

Based: Ft. Lewis, Wash.

542nd Maintenance Company, 44th Support Battalion, 593rd Corps Support Group

Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Died: January 7, 2004

Logistics Base Seitz (west of Baghdad), Iraq

Married, 3 children

Gender: Male
Hometown: Auburn
High School: Bear Creek High (Stockton)
Burial: Cherokee Memorial Park, Lodi, Calif.

Before Army Pfc. Jesse D. Mizener hung up the phone at his military base near Baghdad on Jan. 7, he promised his wife to "instant message" her on the computer as soon as he got out of the shower.

His 22-year-old wife, Nicole, waited at her home in Auburn, near Sacramento, but the message never came.

Minutes after Mizener's call, anti-American insurgents fired six mortar rounds into Logistical Base Seitz, killing the 23-year-soldier and injuring 34 others.

In 2000, he met Nicole Mulqueen, then 19, who frequently came to the facility to visit her mother, a supervising cook. The two got to know each other while they volunteered running banquets for veterans and the homeless. "I was pregnant when he met me," Nicole said. "He was a real nice guy." The couple married in May 2001 and Mizener adopted Mulqueen's child, Gia, now 3. The couple had two children of their own, Eve, 2, and Jesse Jr., 2 months.

Mizener fulfilled a childhood dream by joining the Army in 2002. He was deployed to Iraq last April. He and his wife talked about moving to Washington in April, when he was due home. He wanted to be a highway patrol officer, she said. "He was a very loving man," his wife said.

Mizener also is survived by his father, James; a brother, Brian; a sister, Jennifer; his maternal grandparents, Ernest and Irene Bustamante of San Jose; and his paternal grandparents, Raymond and Peggy Mizener of Lodi.

Read the entire LA Times article about Army Private 1st Class Jesse D. Mizener here; read more here, here and here, and visit Private Mizener's Guest Book.

Jim Mizener, father of Pfc. Jesse D. Mizener, comforts his wife, Becky Mizener, left, and Jesse's widow, Nicole Mizener, at the funeral for his son Friday, Jan. 16, 2004, at Cherokee Memorial Park in Lodi, Calif. Pfc. Mizener died Jan. 7 when a mortar round hit a Baghdad-area logistics base, officials said. (AP Photo/The Sacramento Bee, Brian Baer)

Picture found here.