Army, Specialist
Based: Bamberg, Germany
54th Engineer Battalion, 130th Engineer Brigade
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 11, 2006
Ramadi, Iraq
Married, 1 child
Gender: Male Hometown: Yuba City
High School: Yuba City High (Yuba City)
Burial: Old Auburn Cemetery, Auburn, Calif.
Read more about Army Specialist Harley D. Andrews in theLA Times.
With a little more than a month left on his tour of duty, Andrews, 22, was killed Sept. 11 in Ramadi, the volatile capital of Al Anbar province, 75 miles west of Baghdad, when a roadside bomb detonated under his vehicle during combat operations.
His mother, Kimberly Barlow of Portland, Ore., said she was told by the Army that her son was killed when the bomb exploded through the floor of the vehicle he was driving.
"I know that he went out and he looked for bombs, but he made it sound like it wasn't a big deal," said Barlow, a night manager at a Safeway supermarket. "The more I'm learning, he had a very dangerous job. There's a lot of things he joked off to protect me -- he told his brother a lot more than he told me."
Barlow remembered her son as stubborn, determined and headstrong. "He was very outgoing, he was very outdoorsy, but he always had to push to the next limit. He was a good kid."
Barlow said she did not object when he decided to join the Army. "I'm very proud of my son," she said. "Do I think it was the right thing for him at the time? Yes. You just never think anything will happen to your kid. Did he want to be there? No, but who does? Was he disillusioned? No. But he couldn't wait to get out -- none of them can."
In addition to his wife, son, mother and stepfather, Andrews is survived by his father, Ken C. Phillips of Boise, Idaho; and his brother, Michael, 24, of Portland, Ore.
Visit Harley D. Andrews' Guest Book.
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