Sunday, November 21, 2010

Dale E. Fracker, Army, Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Dale E. Fracker, 23

Army, Corporal
Based: Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division (Light)
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: November 24, 2004
Dihrawud, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Apple Valley
High School: Apple Valley High (Apple Valley)
Burial: Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Apple Valley, Calif.

As a soldier trained to obey orders, Dale E. Fracker Jr. did something unusually daring.

When he learned that a technicality would prevent him from going with his Army unit to Afghanistan, he threatened to go over his commanding officer's head if the rules weren't bent so he could go too. He won. But that devotion to duty ended up costing him his life.

"I'm very proud of my son's service," said his father, Dale E. Fracker Sr., 50, of Apple Valley. "If a brother-in-arms was under fire, Dale was the type to go right in there and not think about himself."

The 23-year-old corporal was killed Nov. 24 near the town of Deh Rawod, about 250 miles southwest of Kabul, when a homemade bomb exploded near his passing military vehicle. A 25-year-old soldier from St. Louis, Corporal Jacob R. Fleischer, also was killed in the blast.
Read the entire LA Times article about Army Corporal Dale E. Fracker here, read more and find remembrances here.

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