Joshua M. Hardt, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Joshua M. Hardt, 24

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Carson, Colo.
3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: October 3, 2009
Kamdesh, Afghanistan
Married
Gender: Male
Hometown: Applegate
High School: Placer High (Auburn)

Joshua was proud of being in the military and of following in his brother's footsteps as a sergeant, said their father, Mike Hardt. "He was so eager to move up," he said. "He would joke about it and say there will be a day when my brother will salute me."
Mike Sabins, who was Joshua's football coach at Placer High, said the young man worked hard and was respected by the coaching staff and other players on the team. Although he was new to the school in his senior year, he fit in well with the football program, the coach said.
"He just did a great job," Sabins said. Joshua's talent and dedication were honored when his helmet was retired after his senior year, the coach said.
Joshua also loved trout and bass fishing, playing baseball and practicing karate.
He took any opportunity he could to better himself, Jonathon said: "He wanted to prove there wasn't anything he couldn't do."
Olivia Hardt, of Auburn, said the military was changing her husband for the better -- he was becoming more mature and had started seeing a military chaplain regularly for advice. She said he also was sending her fresh flowers -- red roses, or white and pink tulips -- just about every week. "He was being the best husband a guy could possibly be," she said.
Joshua had told his wife that the chaplain had urged him to treat her like a queen every single day until death.
And he did, she said.

Read the entire LA Times article here and read more about Army Sergeant Joshua M. Hardt at Freedom Remembered here and the Auburn Journal here, with comments here,

I will miss you brother. Thank you for the lifetime of memories that I will never let go.I am very proud to have been one of your best friends. Me and the boys will tell our stories until the day we die, keeping your memory alive forever. Rest in peace, see ya at the cross roads brother.
— steve martinez
November 14, 2009 at 6:46 p.m.

Read a tribute by Congressman McClintock here.

Army Sergeant Joshua M. Hardt last remembered here at Boom3 on Sunday, October 3, 2010.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Also remembered today

Army Staff Sergeant Daniel Isshak.

Brian J. Pedro, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Brian J. Pedro, 27

Army, Sergeant
Based: White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
2nd Engineer Battalion
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: October 2, 2010
Pul-i-Khumri, Afghanistan

Married

Gender: Male
Hometown: Rosamond
High School: El Camino High (Oceanside)
Burial: Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Oceanside

From Bakersfield Now

ROSAMOND, Calif. -- Friends and family are mourning the loss of a local soldier killed in the line of duty.

The Department of Defense says Sgt. Brian Pedro, 27, of Rosamond, died Saturday in Pol-e-Khumri, Afghanistan. He was wounded when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades.

Pedro was assigned to the 2nd Engineer Battalion, White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico.

Pedro's family knows what it takes to hang the American flag in front of their home. On Sunday morning, a uniformed Army officer came to Lululima Nelson's door to tell her that her 27-year-old son had been killed.

Nelson explained her fears of her son's military career.

"I hope this never happens to me, (but) I know there's a chance," she said. "And now that it has, I just want to let everybody know how proud I am of him."

The Army reservist has left behind a wife and his beloved dog who he called "his little brother."

Pedro went into the Army more than four years ago, and his family says he planned to make the Army his lifetime career. His mother shared with Eyewitness News that her son wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and stepfather.

"He just wanted to make everybody proud of him, and if he only knew how proud we were of him," Nelson said."I couldn't be happier that he did and died doing what he wanted to do."

Pedro will be buried on Thursday in Oceanside, near San Diego, with full military honors. Locally, the Rosamond VFW Post says a memorial service has been scheduled for Oct. 23.

Read more about Army Sergeant Brian J. Pedro in the 

LA Times,  

Military Times 

and visit Sergeant Brian J. Pedro's

Guest Book.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also Remembered today,
Army Sergeant
Joseph W. Perry

Michael A. Monsoor, Navy, Petty Officer 2nd Class -- Rest In Peace

Michael A. Monsoor, 25

Navy, Petty Officer 2nd Class
Based: Coronado, Calif.
SEAL assigned to a West-Coast based command
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 29, 2006
Ramadi, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Garden Grove
High School: Garden Grove High (Garden Grove)
Burial: Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego

One of the survivors puts it this way, 'Mikey looked death in the face that day and said, 'You cannot take my brothers, I will go in their stead.'
— President Bush, Medal of Honor ceremony

On the last day of his life, on a rooftop in Ramadi, Monsoor was assigned to protect three SEAL snipers. When a grenade lobbed from the street bounced off his chest, he yelled, "Grenade!" and pounced on it even though he had a clear path of escape.

Read about Medal of Honor awardee Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class -- Navy SEAL -- Michael A. Monsoor here, here and here.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor previously remembered here on Wednesday, September 29, 2010.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Also remembered today,

Army Sergeant

Robert "Bobby" T Ayres III

Aaron Boyles, Marines, Lance Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Aaron Boyles, 24

Marines, Lance Corporal
Based: Twentynine Palms, Calif.
Headquarters & Service Company, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 24, 2004
Anbar province, Iraq

Married, 2 children

Gender: Male
Hometown: Alameda
High School: Newark Memorial High (Newark)
Burial: Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, Calif.

Boyles, who would have turned 25 this week, had been looking forward to seeing his wife and new child on a two-week leave beginning Oct. 19.

Military officials, however, suddenly canceled the leave, his wife said. "All he said was they had a special mission and couldn't come home this time," she said.

Boyles couldn't stop talking in phone calls and wrote letters home about the impending birth of his son, whom the couple had already named Brandon.


"He was excited about it all the time," his wife said. "He wanted to teach him to play football and basketball and to play catch. He wanted to be a good dad."
"When he joined the Marine Corps, he found his place," his sister said. "It totally changed him. He became a man, with bigger responsibilities than he had ever had."

Boyles and his wife were married July 4, 2003. "He chose that day because it's patriotic," she said. "He always put the flag out and talked about how he loved this country."

In addition to his wife and sister, Boyles is survived by his mother, Wanda Kealaiki, and stepfather, Alex Gallardo, of Newark, Calif.; another sister, Angel Boyles; two brothers, Ademir Gallardo and Andrew Gallardo; and a 5-year-old son, Derrick Boyles, from another relationship.

Read the whole LA Times article about Lance Corporal Aaron Boyles here with more here; find memories and messages here and here.

From left, Prabha Boyles, wife of Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron Robert Boyles, Wanda Keilaki, Boyles' mother, wearing purple lei, and Alex Gallardo, stepfather, say their last goodbyes at the gravesite of Boyles Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004, during funeral services at Golden Gate National Cemeterey in San Bruno, Calif. Prabha Boyles is pregnant expecting the couples' first child.

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

The above picture of the family of Lance Corporal Aaron Boyles was found here.
Marine Lance Corporal Aaron Boyles was previously remembered here on Friday, September 24, 2010

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Also Remembered today 

Marine Reserve Sergeant  

Brian Enrique Dunlap

 

Mick R. Bekowsky, Marines, Corporal -- Rest In Peace

Mick R. Bekowsky, 21

Marines, Corporal
Based: Camp Pendleton
2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: September 6, 2004
Fallouja (9 mi. north of), Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Concord
High School: Concord High (Concord)
Burial: Memory Gardens Cemetery, Concord, Calif.

A world away from his little sister, Mick R. Bekowsky sounded tired and homesick in calls home from Iraq, but he always asked Haley, 12, how her softball team was doing. "They were eight years apart and had two different lives," Brian Bekowsky said of his children. "They both thought they'd have plenty of time to be brother and sister."

The 21-year-old assaultman from Concord, Calif., was killed Sept. 6 by a car bomb in Iraq's Anbar province. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton.

The Marine liked to race cars, hunt and fish. His father said he wanted to be "the life of the party."


"He was a macho 21-year-old boy who thought he was immortal," said his mother, Joan Bekowsky.


Bekowsky enlisted a month after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, shortly after graduating from high school. He was killed weeks before he was due to return home.


"He was the boy next door, the boy you went to high school with, the guy who works at McDonald's," the Marine's father said.


"We picture them as soldiers carrying M-16s, but they're boys."

— Associated Press

Mick R. Bekowsky

Read more about Marine Corporal Mick R. Bekowsky in the LA Times here and visit his Guest Book.

Marine Corporal Mick R. Bekowsky previously remembered at Boom3 on Sunday, September 5, 2010.

Also remembered today, Army Specialist Marques I. Knight and Marine Corporal Derek L. Gardner.

Nathan Kalani Bouchard, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Nathan Kalani Bouchard, 24

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Stewart, Ga.
3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: August 18, 2005
Samarra, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Wildomar
High School: Elsinore High (Wildomar)
Burial: Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside

From the LA Times:

"I am a soldier in the United States Army, 21 years old, and [now in Iraq]," begins a letter to the editor published in the Riverside Press-Enterprise in April 2003, signed by a serviceman named Nathan Bouchard.

"You ask, 'Why, why are we in the Middle East? Why don't we leave Saddam alone? Why do we even get involved?'.... It is because somebody has to.... Because, as you know, problems do not go away just by closing your eyes or turning your back or burying your head in the sand.

"This freedom we have was not free."

Bouchard, 24, died in Samarra, Iraq, on Aug. 18 when a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee.

Raised in Wildomar, in Riverside County, Bouchard was on a second and extended tour of duty in Iraq. He enlisted in the Army in May 2002, spurred by patriotic sentiments after the 2001 terrorist attacks, his parents said.

"Nathan believed in what he was doing. He wrote, and he told us about the good things that they were doing in Iraq," said Alida Bouchard, his mother, from the family's new home in Cottonwood, Ariz.

Bouchard's father, John, a longtime Navy serviceman, said his son spoke to them vividly about escorting his commanding officer into Iraqi towns and villages, about talking to community leaders and fulfilling their requests for sanitation pickups and new schools.

"He enjoyed kids especially," John Bouchard said. "And he enjoyed being over there in the land that was of the Bible -- Samarra -- seeing it firsthand."

Nathan Bouchard was born in 1981 in Dallas. He graduated from Lake Elsinore High School in 1999 and was a starting defensive lineman in his senior year.

He surfed, hiked and went mountain biking. Often, Bouchard hiked "in slippers," which were more comfortable for him, said his father, chuckling.

Bouchard, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division in Ft. Stewart, Ga., also was a devout Christian. He was an active member of The Fold, a Christian youth group in Wildomar. He attended Cornerstone Community Church with his family.

Bouchard last saw his parents and siblings in May, when he visited Cottonwood before returning to Iraq. His younger brother, Sean, 21, also is in the Army and was home when the family received news of Nathan's death.

A funeral service is scheduled for Saturday at Cornerstone Community Church in Wildomar. The Bouchards said they have received messages of support and condolences from as far away as South Africa, many prompted by their son's letter to the editor.


They said they would always remember Nathan as a positive-thinking, energetic man who did anything he could for friends and family when he saw them unhappy. Bouchard's faith, his parents said, continues to give them strength.


"Nathan was a Christian first and a soldier second," John Bouchard said. "That's our reassurance -- our peace that we have -- that he was where God wanted him to be."

Read more about Army Sergeant Nathan Kalani Bouchard in 

Valley News, 

Military Times,

and visit Nathan K. Bouchard's Guest Book.

++++++++++++++++++++

Also killed were:

- Staff Sgt. Jeremy W. Doyle, 24, of Chesterton, Md.

- Spc. Ray M. Fuhrmann, II, 28, of Novato, Calif.

- Pfc. Timothy J. Seamans, 20, of Jacksonville, Fla.

Andre D. Tyson, Patrick R. McCaffrey, Army National Guard -- Rest In Peace

Andre D. Tyson, 33

Army National Guard, 1st Lieutenant
Based: Southern California
578th Engineer Battalion
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: June 22, 2004
Balad (near), Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Riverside
High School: Santa Maria High (Santa Maria)
Burial: Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside

Tyson was killed alongside Patrick McCaffrey in what the military initially told their families was an ambush by insurgents. Two years later, the military informed the families that the soldiers were actually killed by members of the Iraqi national guard who were on patrol with them.

Read the LA Times article about Army National Guard 1st Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson here.
Visit Lieutenant Andre D. Tyson's Guest Book.


Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr., 34

Army National Guard, Sergeant
Based: Petaluma, Calif.
A Company, 579th Engineer Battalion
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: June 22, 2004
Balad (near), Iraq
Married, 2 children
Gender: Male
Hometown: Tracy
High School: Homestead High (Cupertino)
Burial: Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Oceanside

Military officials initially informed his family that McCaffrey had been killed by insurgents. They later determined he and another soldier, Andre Tyson of Riverside, were killed by purported Iraqi allies on patrol with them.

Read the LA Times article about Army National Guard Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. here.
Visit the Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey Sr. Guest Book.

John D. Aragon, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

John D. Aragon, 22

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Campbell, Ky.
1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: June 12, 2008
Kadamiya, Iraq
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Antioch
High School: Antioch High (Antioch)

July 05, 2010

I was part of the crew that brought Sgt.Aragon off of the bird at the hospital... He touched so many of our lives that night without ever saying a word. I still wear a KIA bracelet with his name on it everyday and will continue too. RIP

~ Aaron Fox,
La Crosse, Wisconsin

From Military Times:

ANTIOCH, Calif. — When John Aragon told his mother during his senior year of high school that he wanted to join the Army, she urged him to wait at least a year before making the decision.
Aragon completed a year at a community college, but the delay did nothing to diminish his passion for the military, his mother said. He called his parents once he reached Fort Campbell, Ky., to tell them all about it.
“He said, ‘I love the Army and the Army loves me,”’ Denise Aragon said. “The two just clicked.”
Aragon served for just over two years before he was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Department of Defense announced Friday. Officials said the 22-year-old died of wounds suffered when his Humvee struck the bomb in Kadamiyah, just northwest of Baghdad.

Aragon’s father, John Aragon Sr., said his son wanted to be near the action: “He would say, ‘A true soldier is a fighting foot soldier.”’
But, the elder Aragon said, his son never harbored any romantic notions of war.
“He’d tell us it was pure hell,” he said. “Those were his words: ‘pure hell.”’

Both parents said they are proud of what he accomplished, including the rank of sergeant in two years with the 101st Airborne Division.
The Antioch High School graduate, a die-hard Oakland Raiders fan with the team’s name tattooed above his heart, always kept close ties to home, calling his parents once a week and looking forward to care packages they would send filled with his favorite snacks. Denise Aragon said she had planned to send one more round of snacks before he was due home for a break next month.
“We never got to send them,” Denise Aragon said.

Read more about Army Sergeant John D. Aragon at the Iraq Page 

and at Boom3. 

Visit Sergeant John D. Aragon's Guest Book.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also Remembered today:

Air Force, Tech Sergeant

Sean M. Corlew, 37

-- Rest In Peace

Based: Hurlburt Field, Fla.

16th Special Operations Wing

Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom

Died: June 12, 2002

Gardez (40 mi. southwest of), Afghanistan

Married, 2 children

Gender: Male

Hometown: Thousand Oaks

High School: Newbury Park High (Newbury Park)

Burial: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

He was the best brother you could have. He will always be my hero!

Love,

Scotty

— Scott W. Corlew

November 23, 2008 at 10:11 p.m.

I love and miss my Daddy!

— Miranda

May 10, 2009 at 3:57 p.m.

Clayton G. Dunn, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Clayton G. Dunn II, 22

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Bragg, N.C.
2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Died: May 26, 2007

Salahuddin, Iraq

Married, 1 child

Gender: Male

Hometown: Moreno Valley
High School: Rialto High (Rialto)

Army Sgt. Clayton G. Dunn II grew up knowing he wanted to be a soldier.

The Moreno Valley native, who was killed May 26 in Iraq, was a second-generation soldier whose father, Roy, served in the Army for 22 years.

"He was brought up that way," said Dunn's wife, Haidy. "Ever since he was little, he would play in his dad's boots and helmet."

That helmet became a part of a memorial, with a white cross, flags and flowers, erected on the lawn of his parents' home.

Dunn, 22, was among three paratroopers who died when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad.

Also killed were Spc. Michael J. Jaurigue, 20, of Texas City, Texas, and Spc. Gregory N. Millard, 22, of San Diego.

Dunn deployed to Iraq in August, when his wife was pregnant. The couple would debate baby names during twice-weekly long-distance phone calls.


"One day he just called me on the phone saying, 'I have the name; you can stop searching,' " his wife said. The name was Grace.

Dunn first held his daughter, now 3 months old, during a visit home in April.

"He had a big old smile on his face and he didn't know how to carry her," his wife recalled. "He was carrying her like a football.

"He would say, 'We're not going to spoil her.' And I'd tell him, 'You know she's going to be daddy's little girl.' "


In addition to his wife and daughter, Dunn is survived by his parents, Roy and Aminta Dunn; and a brother, Roy Dunn Jr.

Read the entire LA Times article about Army Sergeant Clayton G. Dunn here.

Find more at Military Times and LA IndyMedia.

Find messages, memories and pictures of Sergeant Clayton G. Dunn in his Guest Book.

 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Michael J. Jaurigue -- Rest In Peace

Gregory N. Millard -- Rest In Peace

Bryan A. Brewster, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Bryan A. Brewster, 24

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Drum, N.Y.
3rd Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry)
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: May 5, 2006
Abad, Afghanistan
Married
Gender: Male
Hometown: Fontana

High School: Fontana High (Fontana)

Whenever a U.S. helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, Army Sgt. Bryan Allen Brewster telephoned his family to assure them he was OK.

But when Brewster's family heard news reports that 10 soldiers were killed May 5 in the crash of a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter along the Pakistan border, there was no call from the 24-year-old sergeant.

"Whenever there was a [helicopter] crash, he would call us," said his father, Louis. "He knew that we would be worried. He always called to tell us he was fine."

On May 7, military envoys arrived at the Brewster home in Victorville to tell them Bryan was killed two days earlier along with nine other soldiers from the Ft. Drum, N.Y.-based 10th Mountain Division.

The helicopter went down in a remote area of the Afghan mountains, where soldiers were searching for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, a U.S. military official said. It wasn't believed that enemy fire caused the crash.

Louis Brewster, sports editor for the San Bernardino Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin in Ontario, confirmed his son's death shortly after he received the news along with his wife, Linda, and son Scott.

He recalled Bryan's charm and noted that his heart belonged to his high school sweetheart and wife, Kati. They didn't have any children.


"She loved that boy, and he loved her," Louis Brewster said. "They were meant for each other."


Bryan Brewster celebrated his 21st birthday in Afghanistan and his 22nd in Iraq. He turned 24 a week before he died.


"It's an awful lot of missed birthdays and anniversaries," Louis Brewster said.

Funeral arrangements will be made when the soldier's body arrives home.

"Every one of us is very proud of what Bryan did and what he accomplished," his father said.

Read the entire LA Times about Army Sergeant Bryan A. Brewster article here. Find more at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also killed were:

Pfc. Brian M. Moquin Jr. -- Rest In Peace

Spc. David N. Timmons Jr. -- Rest In Peace

Sgt. Jeffery S. Wiekamp -- Rest In Peace

Sgt. John C. Griffith -- Rest In Peace

Specialist Justin L. O'Donohoe -- Rest In Peace

Staff Sgt. Christopher T. Howick -- Rest In Peace

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christopher B. Donaldson -- Rest In Peace

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Eric W. Totten -- Rest In Peace

Lt. Col. Joseph J. Fenty -- Rest In Peace