Ming Sun, Army, Private 1st Class -- Rest In Peace

Ming Sun , 20

Army, Private 1st Class

Based: Ft. Carson, Colo.

1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment,
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: January 9, 2007
Ramadi, Iraq
Single

Gender: Male

Hometown: Cathedral City
High School: Cathedral City High (Cathedral City)
Foreign Country of Birth: China
Burial: Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside

If he could have, Ming Sun would have joined the Army soon after he graduated from Cathedral City High School in 2004.

"He wanted to do something for his country," said his father, David. "He loved the military. He wanted to be a man, you know, like a soldier."

But Sun, who came to the United States from China in 1995, wasn't a citizen and lacked a green card -- the proof of legal residency required by the military, his father said.

So Sun went to a local community college until his green card was granted. Then, without telling his parents, he enlisted in March, requesting the infantry, his father said.

"We, both parents, didn't want him to go," his father said, speaking for himself and his wife, Zhi Feng Liu. "We wanted him to be a scientist."


But Ming Sun launched eagerly into a military whirlwind, his friends recalled. He did his basic training at Ft. Carson, Colo., where in mid-August he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Two months later, he was sent to Iraq, his father said.

On Jan. 9, less than 10 months after he enlisted, the 20-year-old private first class was killed when his unit was attacked with small-arms fire while on patrol in Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

He is believed to be the first Chinese national to be killed in the Iraq war, his father said.

In addition to his parents, Sun is survived by a 9-year-old sister, Allison.

Read the entire LA Times article about Army Private 1st Class Sun Ming here and find more here, here, and here.



A soldier holds the 'dogtags' of slain U.S. Army PFC Ming Sun, age 20, at a memorial ceremony January 15, 2007 in Ramadi in Iraq's Anbar province. Sun was shot and killed by an insurgent sniper on January 9, 2007 while on combat operations with his unit from A Company 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment in Sufia, east of Ramadi. Sun was born in China and became an American citizen after moving to the United States with his family in 1996.

 More Ming Sun images found at Life.

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Also in our prayers today, Marine Captian Matthew W. Bancroft and his family.