Army, Specialist
Based: Ft. Bragg, N.C.
782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: March 1, 2010
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Stevenson Ranch
High School: William S. Hart Senior High (Newhall)
Gelig was a good friend and great person. He was always there for you when you needed something. He will be deeply missed by everyone in this unit, for a piece of us went with him.
— David Tryon, paratrooper who served with Gelig
Please read the entire LA Times article about Army Specialist Ian T.D. Gelig here, find more at Freedom Remembered and at Military Times. Specialist Gelig's local paper covers his death here.Army Sgt. Ian T.D. Gelig was so popular in his Stevenson Ranch neighborhood that whenever the paratrooper returned home on leave, his two sisters would keep his visits secret for a while.
"We wouldn't tell people he was here because we wanted to hang out with him," said his younger sister, Vanessa, 21, who was sitting in the family living room, photographs of her brother adorning the walls and tabletops.
"Otherwise, everybody would be coming over. He had this way with people. Everybody was always saying, 'He's my best friend.' "
Gelig, 25, was killed March 1 when a suicide bomber drove into his convoy in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province, on the Pakistani border.
He was an armored-vehicle driver assigned to the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Ft. Bragg, N.C.
On the day he died, Gelig took the more exposed position of gunner to fill in for a sick comrade. Among his many awards and decorations was the Bronze Star.
Remembered both for his quiet spirituality and gregarious sense of humor, Gelig died with rosary beads in his pocket and dreams of following his mother and father into the nursing profession when his Army hitch was up.
His gift for coaxing smiles from frowns would have been ideal for nursing, Gelig's loved ones say.
Army Specialst Ian T.D. Gelig previously remembered at Boom3.
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