Clayton D. McGarrah, Army Specialist -- Rest In Peace

Clayton D. McGarrah, 20

Army Specialist
Based: Fort Bragg, N.C.
508th Parachute Infantry Regiment
4th Brigade Combat Team
82nd Airborne Division
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: July 4, 2010
Arghandab, Afghanistan
Married
Gender: Male
Hometown: Harrison, AR
Burial: Maple Leaf Cemetery in Harrison

In a letter read at the service that McGarrah wrote to his wife, Emily, upon his deployment, he first joked about getting a much-needed vacation. Then he said, “I’m going to miss you very much. I’ll be home before you know it. Today marks our one-month anniversary.”
McGarrah wrote the letter June 7. He was killed July 4.

Speakers told a packed Faith Assembly of God Church in Harrison that McGarrah lived a very full life, spending time with his wife, parents, siblings and many nieces and nephews, hunting and vacationing.
The Rev. Arlis Thrasher said McGarrah, who went by the nickname Clayboy, had two goals: marriage and military service.
“He got those,” Thrasher said, and noted that much of the service — filled with country songs and slideshows of family photographs — had been planned by McGarrah and his wife before his deployment.
“Just in case,” Thrasher said.
Thrasher told the mourners to consider July 4 a day to remember McGarrah’s life, not just the bitter memory of his death.
“Our lives are like a mist that appears over these Ozark valleys,” Thrasher said. “Don’t waste another minute of the life you have.”

Clayton D. McGarrah is survived by his wife, Emily McGarrah, and his parents Michele and Orville McGarrah.

Read more about Army Specialist Clayton D. McGarrah here, here, here, here, and here.