Christopher L. Palmer, Army, Private -- Rest In Peace

Christopher L. Palmer, 22

Army, Private
Based: Vicenza, Italy
2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: August 21, 2005
Baylough, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Sacramento
High School: Cordova High (Rancho Cordova)
Burial: St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Sacramento

Pvt. Palmer, 22, was killed in the predawn hours of Aug. 21 near Baylough, Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device exploded near his Humvee. A passenger in the vehicle as it patrolled the area, he was one of four soldiers who died in the blast.
He had been in Afghanistan since March, his mother said, serving a second tour of duty. Palmer had previously spent a year in Iraq.
Annie Palmer said her son left home for basic training at Ft. Benning, Ga., on Sept. 10, 2001. The following day, when hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, she remembers knowing that her son would have to fight in a war.
"When Sept. 11 happened, I think part of me just went away," she said. The next time she and her husband, Clemmie, saw their son, in February 2003, he told them he was headed to Iraq.

At Cordova High School, where he graduated in 2000, Palmer played football and soccer and was a member of the wrestling team. He had a brown belt in taekwondo and enjoyed lifting weights.
In addition, "he loved to break-dance -- and he was quite good at it too," Annie Palmer recalled.

As a teenager, Palmer was quiet and polite, she added, always addressing those older than he was as "sir" or "ma'am." She remembered with pride the day she took him with her to work at McClellan Air Force Base, where she used to be a civilian employee.
Co-workers "kept looking at him and looking at me and they said, 'This is your son?' They couldn't believe he was the perfect kid.

"He was something," Annie Palmer said. "Everybody he met loved Christopher. He just had this magnetic personality."
In letters and phone calls from Iraq and Afghanistan, his mother said, he would tell his family of the strong sense of duty he felt toward his job. He also would give them his impressions of those countries.

"Coming from a land of plenty, he was just blown away on how some of the people lived" in Iraq and Afghanistan, Annie Palmer said. "He would say, 'They walk in the street -- kids with no shoes, scouring in garbage for food.' That really broke him up."

Read more about Army Private Christopher L. Palmer here, here and here.

Army Private Christopher L. Palmer previously remembered at Boom3 on Saturday, August 21, 2010.

Toad and Tent

Three Sisters. Lake Ouachita. Arkansas. August 2011.

Brian M. Wolverton, Army, Private -- Rest In Peace

Brian M. Wolverton, 21

Army, Private 1st Class
Based: Ft. Drum, N.Y.
1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry)
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: August 20, 2009
Kunar province, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Oak Park
High School: Oak Park High (Oak Park)
Burial: Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Memorial Park, Westlake Village

After Wolverton graduated from high school in 2006, he spent 2 1/2 years at Moorpark College, where he became interested in cultural anthropology and earned his associate's degree.
In January, the Oak Park resident signed up for a six-year hitch in the Army.
Part of Wolverton's motivation was to continue an unbroken military tradition for men in his family, dating from his father's Army service to a great-great-grandfather's stint in the Union army during the Civil War, his parents said.
He is survived by his parents, who are both accountants and longtime Oak Park residents; and his 17-year-old brother, Michael. Funeral services were held Aug. 29 at Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

At an early age, Wolverton was a fan of war action video games, such as "Call of Duty 4" and the Magic fantasy card game, his mother said. But track became the focus of his teen years. Later, while in college, he worked as an assistant track coach at his high school.

Wolverton wanted an Army career but planned to pursue a bachelor's degree, probably in cultural anthropology, through the GI Bill, his parents said.

Read more about Army Private Brian M. Wolverton here and here with many comments from loved ones here.

The remains of Private 1st Class Brian M. Wolverton of Oak Pakr arrives at Van Nuys Airport. He was killed while serving in the Army in Afghanistan.

Christopher Wolverton and his wife Miriam view the casket that contains the body of their son Private 1st Class Brian M. Wolverton, 21, arrive at Van Nuys Airport, August 27, 2009

Photos by Chuck Kirman / Star staff August 27

Here's a Ranger video from Wolverton's MySpace page:

Ranger School Promo

Wolverine | MySpace Video

Army Private Brian M. Wolverton was previously remembered here on Friday, August 20, 2010.

Shabbat Shalom

Falashas

Guillaume Quatravaux -- Birthday Boy

Les Petits Fils.
Subtitle as appears in the original.
Happy B'day GQ.

What? It's tomorrow in Paris already.

Matthew L. Tallman, Army, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Matthew L. Tallman, 30

Army, Sergeant
Based: Ft. Lewis, Wash.
4th Squadron, 6th U.S. Air Cavalry Regiment
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: August 22, 2007
Multaka, Iraq
Married, 2 children
Gender: Male
Hometown: Groveland
High School: St. Lawrence Academy (Santa Clara)
Burial: Gate of Heaven Cemetery, Los Altos, Calif.

From the LA Times:

Virginia Tallman continues to replay a trio of messages left on her answering machine this summer.

Her only child, Matthew, first called to tell her he had arrived in Kuwait, on his way to Iraq. Then, he left word to say he had reached the Iraqi town of Kirkuk and was keeping busy as a helicopter crew chief in the Army. And on a third call, he said the sand was bothering him, but there was no reason to worry.

"He said, 'I don't want you to sit here worrying about me, Mom. I'm safe,' " Virginia Tallman said, recounting her son's third message.

Each time, she was away from the phone.

The recorded messages carry even greater meaning these days, since Army Sgt. Matthew L. Tallman was killed Aug. 22 in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Multaka, Iraq, north of Baghdad. At age 30, he was the oldest of 14 soldiers killed.

Tallman was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 6th Air Cavalry Regiment at Ft. Lewis, Wash.

Now when she replays his final message, his mother says aloud, "I don't have to worry about you anymore, Matt."

Soon after Tallman graduated from high school in 1996, his mother suggested that he join the Army. He wasn't a particularly good student and didn't really like to study, she said, so she thought the military might be the right fit.

But he said no. "He said, 'Well, Mom, you want me to jump from the fireplace to the fire,' " his mother recalled.

Tallman worked and traveled for three years, and then moved back to his mother's home in Groveland, east of Modesto. One day, he came home and told her that he had visited the Army recruiter and was going to enlist.

"Boot camp was a wonderful thing for him," she said. "It gave him a lot of confidence and a lot of discipline. . . . I think he was like a lot of young men that just grow up a little slow."

Tallman met his wife, Nicole, in 2000, when both were in training at Ft. Eustis, Va. She was in his barracks, teaching new arrivals how to prepare their lockers for inspection, and "he was the only one who wasn't listening to me. He had his ears plugged up with earphones while listening to his music. That's how he got me to notice him."

Not that it was tough to notice him. At 6 feet 2, "he kind of stood out no matter where he was," she said.

They were married later that year and, in 2001, their daughter, Sandra, was born. "He was devoted to her from the second her big blue eyes looked at his," his wife said. "She was definitely something special to her dad."

Last year, the couple's second child, Matthew Ryley, was born. Tallman "wanted to have a boy so bad," his wife said. "He said, 'I won't believe it until he comes out and pees on the doctor.' "

Virginia Tallman said she wasn't nervous about her son's safety when he was dispatched to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in 2004 as part of a helicopter maintenance crew.

But she was apprehensive when she learned this year that he would be sent to Iraq as part of the flight squadron.

"I was pretty upset," she said. "When he left, I said, 'Matt, I don't want you to go.' He just said, 'I know, Mom. I know.' "

Tallman's mother and widow described him as an easygoing guy who loved the outdoors, computer games and reading. Born and reared in the Bay Area, he was a good skier and enjoyed bicycling. His mother regularly took him on hikes -- much to his dismay initially.

But as he got older, he fell in love with the wilderness. "Every time he came home, he'd have to go and get his dose of Yosemite," his mother said.

Michael Seidler, a teacher at St. Lawrence Academy in Santa Clara, where Matthew attended high school, said he seemed to be looking for direction as a teenager.

"He was figuring out life by the time he passed away," Seidler said. "Life was coming together for him."

Before Tallman died, his superiors in the Army asked him to apply for a promotion to sergeant. Posthumously, he was awarded the designation.

Tallman's father, H.L. "Ted," died when Matthew was 3. Matthew was buried near his dad's grave at Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos, Calif.

Tallman's voice doesn't just remain on his mother's answering machine. Before he left for Iraq, he recorded a greeting on a stuffed dog that he purchased for his daughter. He says, "Sandie, I love you and I miss you, and I'll never ever forget about you. I love you very much."

Find more about Army Sergeant Matthew L. Tallman at Military Times and visit Sergeant Tallman's Guest Book.

Also killed were

Capt. Corry P. Tyler

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Paul J. Flynn

Spc. Rickey L. Bell

Capt. Derek A. Dobogai

Staff Sgt. Jason L. Paton

Sgt. Garrett I. McLead

Cpl. Jeremy P. Bouffard

Cpl. Phillip J. Brodnick

Cpl. Joshua S. Harmon

Cpl. Nathan C. Hubbard

Spc. Michael A. Hook

Cpl. Jessy G. Pollard

Spc. Tyler R. Seideman.

Harvey Emmett Parkerson III, Marines, Sergeant -- Rest In Peace

Harvey Emmett Parkerson III, 27

Marines, Sergeant

Based: Camp Pendleton

Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable)

Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Died: August 18, 2004

Najaf, Iraq

Married, 2 children

Gender: Male

Hometown: Yuba City

High School: Orland High (Orland)

Burial: Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego

Harvey Parkerson III had two very different roles in his life. He was the battle-toughened Marine thoroughly dedicated to serving in a war zone. And he was the tender, doting dad who sent his wife a stream of love letters from Iraq.

"He said he had a job to do," said his wife, Amanda. "He felt like he was making a difference. But he saw it as an honor and not just a job."

When he was off duty or on leave, Parkerson couldn't get enough of his two sons, 11-month-old Harvey Parkerson IV and 6-year-old Matthew (from a previous relationship).

"He wrote me a lot of love letters, beautiful letters, all the time," said his wife, whom he married in November 2002. "He didn't [write] about the conditions in Iraq. He never complained."

In addition to his wife and children, Parkerson is survived by his father and stepmother, Harvey and Nancy Parkerson Jr. of Marysville; his mother and stepfather, Lori and Tony Moreno of Orland; two brothers; and two sisters. Burial will be at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma, Calif.

~ Harvey Emmett Parkerson III Ceremony ~  

Son Matthew 6 With Mother Lori

Read more about Marines, Seargeant Harvey Emmett Parkerson III in the
NC Times 
and LA Times.

Marine Sergeant Harvey Emmett Parkerson, III 
was last remembered at Boom3 on Wednesday, August 18, 2010.

Kylan A. Jones-Huffman, Naval Reserve, Lieutenant -- Rest In Peace

Kylan A. Jones-Huffman, 31

Naval Reserve, Lieutenant

Based: Baltimore Naval Reserve Center

1st Marine Expeditionary Force (temp. duty)

Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Died: August 21, 2003

Hillah, Iraq

Married

Gender: Male

Hometown: Aptos

From the LA Times:

A Navy intelligence analyst raised in Santa Cruz County was shot to death by an unidentified gunman in Iraq, military officials said Friday.

Lt. Kylan A. Jones-Huffman, 31, who grew up in Aptos, was killed Thursday while working in the city of Hillah, according to a Defense Department statement. He was one of two American casualties that day.

Jones-Huffman, who was fond of haiku and had a doctorate in history, planned to become a history teacher when he returned home, his father said. He was fluent in several languages, including German and French.

His son had "an unquenchable curiosity and desire to teach," said James Huffman, 57, who now lives in Pagosa Springs, Colo., with his wife, Dagmar. "He read everything he could get his hands on."

Jones-Huffman was deployed to the Middle East in January and had been stationed in Bahrain, his father said. At the time of his death, he was on temporary duty with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Huffman said, and his job was to brief American troops arriving in Iraq.

The lieutenant was born while his father was serving in the Army in Vietnam, and in 1980 the family settled in Aptos. In 1994, Jones-Huffman graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, and a year later he married his high school sweetheart, Heidi Jones, his father said.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Jones-Huffman began working for the Navy's Criminal Investigative Service as a counterterrorism analyst.

The last few years, the couple had lived in College Park, Md., according to his family.

He is also survived by a younger brother and sister.

Read more about Naval Reserve Lieutenant Kylan A. Jones-Huffman a
Fallen Heroes
and the Iraq Page.
Visit Lieutenant Kylan A. Jones-Huffman's Guest Book.

NSA Bahrain Dedicates Kylan Jones-Huffman Library

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.

Surfing Arkansas

Hot Springs, 2011

Baby Jay

2011

Three Sisters, Arkansas

Fernando Baxter Hannon, Marines, Pfc -- Rest In Peace

Fernando Baxter Hannon, 19

Marines, Private 1st Class
Based: Camp Pendleton
3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: August 15, 2004
Fallouja (near), Iraq
Engaged
Gender: Male
Hometown: Wildomar
High School: John Marshall Senior High (Los Angeles)
Burial: East Kern Cemetery, Mojave, Calif.

Sitting in their small, humble home in Mojave, Calif., it's hard for the Hannon family to talk about Fern, as they called him, without smiling or laughing, even in their grief.
"He just glowed," said his sister Sonya.
Even as a broad-shouldered man, standing 6 feet 3, Hannon could still fold himself into the arms of his much shorter mother.
She remembered how he would rest his head on her shoulder and promise that he would see to it that, one day, she would not have to work.

Growing up with three older sisters and a younger brother made him a compassionate and warm person, who rarely raised his voice and was generous with his affection, his family said.

His sisters also passed down a love of baking from scratch and watching soap operas, his sister Alicia Tovar said.
During his calls home from Iraq, Hannon would needle his sister for updates of "The Young and the Restless," but he would whisper so the soldiers waiting behind him for the telephone could not hear, Sonya Hannon said.

Hannon's fiance, Ruth Ponce, 21, remembered him as an unassuming young man who wooed her without knowing it. … "He would laugh with his whole spirit," she said. "I'm just glad we found each other."

Read more about Marines, Private 1st Class Fernando Baxter Hannon here.

Marine Private 1st Class Fernando Baxter Hannon was last remembered at Boom3 on Sunday, August 15, 2010

Janelle F. King, Army, Private -- Rest In Peace

Janelle F. King, 23

Army, Private
Based: Ft. Polk, La.
115th Combat Support Hospital
Supporting: Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died: August 14, 2008
Baghdad, Iraq
Engaged
Gender: Female
Hometown: Merced
High School: Rancocas Valley Regional High School (Mount Holly NJ)
Burial: Ft. Sill Post Cemetery, Lawton, Okla.

King was serving her first tour of duty after joining the Army in May 2007. She was assigned to the 115th Combat Support Hospital in December, and her unit was deployed to Iraq in May.
The eldest daughter of an Air Force official, King was born in Altus, Okla., and lived in California, Panama and Hawaii before graduating from Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mt. Holly, N.J., in 2003.
King took to the constant relocation like a "chameleon," making friends easily and getting along with people of vastly different backgrounds, said her father, Brian King, 47, of Severn, Md.

He said his daughter loved being an older stepsister to Alexandra King, 7, and Brian King, 5. "Whenever she came home, she'd tell us, 'Please go out so we can have fun,' " he said. "They would joke around, play, pull out board games -- Chutes and Ladders, Candyland -- and just enjoy each other's company."
Brian King last spoke to his daughter by phone Aug. 13 from the post office where he was preparing to send her a care package. The next day, he got the message that she had died

Baby Girl,
I still remember all the times in the bay me n you would laugh n talk. I miss the crazy things you used to do and the way everyone would get so mad at you when you would come in and be loud and how I would take you back to your bunk and try to bribe you into going to sleep and then we would just laugh. I still can't believe you're gone. You will forever stay in my heart and mind. I Love You!
— Spc. Guerrero
September 18, 2009 at 5:53 a.m.

Visit Army Private Janelle F. King's Guest Book here and read more about Janelle F. King here and here.

Army Private Janelle F. King was previously remembered at Boom3 on Saturday, August 14, 2010.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010

Signage We Like -- Arkansas

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

Stubby's

Reviewed at FCG BBQ

Jesse D. Pittman, Navy, Petty Officer 1st Class, SEAL -- Rest In Peace

Jesse D. Pittman, 27

Navy, Petty Officer 1st Class
Based: West Coast-based Navy SEAL
Navy SEAL
Supporting: Operation Enduring Freedom
Died: August 6, 2011
Wardak province, Afghanistan
Single
Gender: Male
Hometown: Willits
High School: Willits High (Willits)

Three memories of Jesse D. Pittman:

Such a sweet smile that could light up a room. I will always remember days in school he brought smiles when I felt down. Your forever in my heart.. Thank you for all you have done. "Gone but Never Forgotten." Much Love!
— Tanya W.
August 10, 2011 at 5:23 p.m.

Never short on smiles or odd ball jokes. A one in a million guy with the kind of attitude and work ethic that makes his community proud. Could never have a bad day around Jesse, anyone who knew him knows that he could squeeze a smile out of a rock. What a great guy. Thoughts and prayers are with The Pittman family, Thanks to them for helping to mold, not just a model American, but a model human being.
— JP Carson
August 11, 2011 at 11:14 p.m.

Went to A school with Jesse at Fort Meade. He was one of the most dedicated people I have ever met. He wanted to be a SEAL and nothing was going to stop him. America is blessed to have had such a person serving in her armed forces. Aside from that he had a great sense of humor and was an extremely friendly person. A real joy to be around. My heart goes out to the Pittman family.
— Cale B.
August 12, 2011 at 12:16 a.m.

From the Ukiah Daily Journal

Navy SEAL from Willits killed in Afghanistan crash

By TIFFANY REVELLE The Daily Journal
Updated: 08/09/2011 11:59:40 PM PDT

A former firefighter from Willits was among the 30 American troops who died when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents in Afghanistan early Saturday, according to Cal Fire Battalion Chief Norm Brown, a spokesman for the young man's family.
Jesse Pittman was reportedly among the 25 U.S. Navy SEALs aboard the helicopter when it went down. The crash killed 30 American military service members, seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, a record number of casualties in one day for the conflict's nearly 10-year span.
The SEALs who died in the crash were not part of the team that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but they belonged to the same unit, according to the Associated Press.
The Pentagon hadn't released the names of any of the military personnel aboard the helicopter, but friends and family confirmed some of the names in early reports.
Pittman graduated from Willits High School in 2002 and worked in 2003 and 2004 as a seasonal firefighter with Cal Fire before joining the Navy. His father, Terry Pittman, is a heavy equipment operator with Cal Fire.
Terry Pittman and his wife, Ida, were reportedly out of state Monday and Tuesday to claim their son's remains at a military ceremony.

"He could barely speak," Brown said of his Tuesday phone conversation with Terry Pittman, who he supervises.
Chris Wilkes, who co-owned an automotive repair shop in Willits, said Jesse did odd jobs at the shop during his high school years to learn the trade. He said Jesse, his older brother and his father shared an interest in diesel performance and hot rods.
"(Jesse) was fun to have around," Wilkes said, describing him as friendly, smart, "super respectful" and a hard worker.
Jesse continued to visit the automotive repair shop after graduating from high school while he worked for Cal Fire, according to Wilkes, and had told Wilkes he planned to leave firefighting to become a Navy SEAL.
Wilkes said he advised Jesse against it because he had a good career and "the odds are next to none" that he would have passed the specialized training.
"I was just goofing around with him; I told him he watched too much TV. And he went out and did it," Wilkes said. "We were extremely proud of him."
Wilkes described a kind of awe at realizing that all the time they had spent with Jesse "an elite person" had been among them.
"He was just a good man," Wilkes said. "He was amazing."
Cal Fire Capt. Ken Azevedo supervised Jesse during the two summers he spent as a seasonal firefighter at Cal Fire's Leggett station.
"He was an inspiration to the whole crew when it came to physical fitness, endurance and morale," Azevedo said. "He was a great person and a great firefighter, and he strived to get everybody up to his own level."
Jesse made it known he wanted to be a Navy SEAL during his second summer with Cal Fire, according to Azevedo, and literally went "the extra lap" to get himself physically ready, even training with a former SEAL during his off-hours.
"He boosted the morale of the entire crew," he said. "The guys were in the best physical shape that year because of him."
Azevedo remembers Jesse's sense of humor and his need for excitement, saying, "I think firefighting was not enough excitement for him.
"He's going to be missed by everybody. We were so proud of him when he got on as a SEAL, and this is devastating for the guys," Azevedo said.