Three more have died:
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Corporal Benjamin S. Kopp was from Rosemount, Minnesota
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Lance Corporal Brandon T. Lara was from New Braunfels, Texas
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Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas was from New Braunfels, Texas
The IGTNT team usually writes tributes for recent casualties announced by the US Department of Defense. However, as time allows, additional losses are covered. Tonight Lt. Col. Rivas (retired) is honored for himself and as a representative of all those wounded in body, heart, mind, or spirit because of their service to our country. All might not make the DOD list but they also are casualties of war and deserve rememberance from a grateful nation.
Corporal Benjamin S. Kopp
Ben Kopp graduated from Minnesota’s Rosemount High School in 2006 and immediately joined the Army. Kopp's mother, Jill Stephenson, said Ben's decision to join the Army right out of high school was influenced by his great-grandfather, who served in World War II. According to his obituary at the Minnesota Public Radio site:
"He took a liking to history, of our country, and had a lot of interest in the stories that he had to tell about where he went and what he did," Stephenson said. "Great-grandpa had a lot of medals that were on display in the house, and Ben was interested in those and where they came from. It was really his great, I think, respect and admiration for him that turned him on and gave him an interest in serving his country."
He completed two tours of duty in Iraq and had been sent to Afghanistan with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, based at Fort Benning, Georgia. On July 10th, while Corporal Kopp was in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, insurgents attacked the unit with small arms fire. He was badly wounded, and the loss of blood caused him to go into cardiac arrest at the battalion surgical center.
Doctors were able to perform CPR and stabilize him. Kopp was transported to Germany and then to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. A posting on the CaringBridge site set up for the Corporal, indicated that the blood loss Kopp suffered had caused his brain to swell. The treatment was to keep him in a medically-induced coma.
Corporal Benjamin S. Kopp never regained consciousness, and died on July 18th, 2009. He was 21 years old. According to the Rosemount Town Pages News site, Ben’s mother, Jill Stephenson had been hoping for a miracle:
That miracle didn’t come despite prayers and positive thoughts from thousands of visitors to the CaringBridge site and to a tribute site set up in Kopp’s honor on the social networking site facebook.
As of Monday morning nearly 8,000 people had visited the CaringBridge site. Stephenson said reading the messages from those visitors reminded her of the people left fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Please continue to say prayers for all of the men and women who so proudly serve our country," Stephenson wrote online. "Ben had a deep love of country and has just left a legacy of heroism for all of us to cherish. Be as proud of him as I was as his mother."
There will be services for Kopp in Minnesota, though details are not yet available. Kopp had requested to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, so it is expected that his wishes will be granted, and the Patriot Guard Riders will attend.
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Lance Corporal Brandon T. Lara
Brandon Lara was from New Braunfels, Texas. He was anxious to join the Marine Corps, so finished his high school credits early, and was in boot camp before his classmates at Canyon High School in New Braunfels attended their graduation in May of 2006. He completed a combat deployment to Iraq from February 2008 to September of 2008.
Lance Corporal Lara's current deployment was as an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, California. He was serving in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
Lance Corporal Brandon T. Lara died on July 19th, during combat operations in Iraq. He was 20 years old. The KSAT News site quotes Brandon’s mother:
"I never thought this was going to happen," said Gloria Lara, the marine's mother. Gloria Lara said her son was pursuing a childhood dream of serving his country as a Marine when he was killed.
"I just want people to know that we are very proud of him and he’s going to be remembered," she said. "He’s the kind of person that, just by meeting him one time, people would remember him."
Family members are having a hard time coping with their loss, according to the Statesman.com site:
"Everybody's devastated," Gloria Lara said. "We keep looking at it on TV. ... It's just kind of hard to grasp."
Brandon Lara's grandmother, Sofia Torres, said she never imagined that last Christmas would be her last with her oldest grandson.
"Whatever God sends, we have to take it and hold it," Torres said. "But it's going to be hard on us."
The original of this striking picture can be found at the Zimbio site. The photo is of the homecoming of Lance Corporal Lara and is by Robert Giroux Getty Images North America.
The Lance Corporal's military awards and decorations include the National Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
Details have not yet been released about funeral arrangements for Lance Corporal Brandon T. Lara.
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Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas had retired and settled down in New Braunfels, Texas with his family after returning from Afghanistan. The 53-year-old was a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also served in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Africa.
He had suffered for nearly three years from traumatic brain injury and other ailments after an October 12, 2006, mortar attack in Afghanistan. Rivas lost his battle for life on July 15. He was found dead in San Antonio near Brooke Army Medical Center's emergency room.
Retired Army Reserve Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas is survived by his wife and three children. The KSAT News site quotes a friend of the family:
Lt. Col. Raymond Trejo Rivas, a retired member of the U.S. Army Reserve from New Braunfels, died last week from injuries suffered during a mortar attack in Iraq three years ago.
"He was a very happy person, he always had a good thing to say about everything," said friend Ken Wilder. "(He was) very positive, a hardworking engineer and a very good soldier."
The picture above is of Lt. Col. Raymond T. Rivas receiving a Purple Heart. The original and an article can be found on the Herald Zeitung site.
Lt. Col. Rivas was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on July 22nd. The My San Antonio site carries a story about the services.
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider Operation Helmet, or Fisher House. If you have frequent flyer miles, they can be donated to hospitalized veterans or their families. See Fisher House’s Hero Miles program for details. Consider sponsoring a deployed service member at TroopCarePackage.com. Letters or care packages can make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Also, you could visit:
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About the IGTNT series:
"I Got the News Today" is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind us of the sacrifice of our troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, greenies, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, Mediaprof, and rb137. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but are an important service to those Americans who have died and show our community’s respect for them.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the Department of Defense will usually be diaried two days after the official announcement on the DoD website. This allows the IGTNT team to cover each person more fully, but still in a timely manner
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Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members mentioned here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.