Clay P. Farr, Army, Specialist -- Rest In Peace

Clay P. Farr , 21

Army, Specialist
Based: Ft. Drum, N.Y.
1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry)
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: February 26, 2006
Baghdad (western part), Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Bakersfield
High School: Centennial High (Bakersfield)
Burial: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Even as a youngster, Clay Farr seemed destined for the military life, his father said. In school, he liked to color everything in camouflage patterns.

"Clay was all Army from the time he was small," his father said, recalling a photograph of his then-4-year-old son wearing a camouflage ball cap at an air show. "That's when the Army got him."

The 21-year-old Bakersfield native enlisted after graduating from Centennial High School in 2003 and asked to go to Iraq.

On Feb. 26, Farr was one of two soldiers killed when a roadside bomb exploded near their Humvee while they were on patrol in Baghdad. Also killed was Army Spc. Joshua U. Humble, 21, of Appleton, Maine. Both were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 71st Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Ft. Drum, N.Y.

Joining the Army was part of Farr's bigger plan: After the war, he was going to marry his high-school sweetheart and become a Kern County sheriff's deputy, his parents said.

In high school, Farr rode around Bakersfield in boots and camouflage dungarees as he and his friends scouted areas such as the almond orchard across from their high school to play paintball or jump their BMX bikes, said one of his best friends, Jared Russell, 20.

Farr also joined the Explorer Scouts and rode along with sheriff's deputies nearly every weekend, preferring to patrol the city's east side because "that's where the action is," Russell said.

...

In addition to his parents, Farr is survived by a brother, Chad; his stepmother, Silver Farr; his stepfather, Anthony Alderete; and two stepsisters, Amanda Cope and Taylor Alderete.

Do read the entire LA Times article about Army Specialist Clay P Farr here, find more at Arlington Cemetery, at Military Times and visit Specialist Clay P. Farr's Guest Book for remembrances, messages and photographs.  

A bugler at Arlington National Cemetery plays taps at the burial of Army Specialist Clay P. Farr, who was killed in Baghdad.