On Monday, the Department of Defense announced the deaths of a soldier and two marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom:
Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman, 35, of Kingsport, Tenn., died Jan. 7 at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day at Combat Outpost Bowri Tana, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Lance Cpl. Mark D. Juarez, 23, of San Antonio, Texas, died in an explosion Jan. 9, and Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert, 20, of Fort Atkinson, Wis., died in a Jan. 10 explosion, while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. Both men were assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kane'ohe Bay, Hawaii.
Please take a moment to remember them and honor their sacrifice.
"There's no better way of dying than dying for your country, for your people....
Not many of us get to die doing what we really want to do. He felt a duty. He's a damn good man and he's a damn good soldier." Vietnam Veteran J.D. Hickman reflected after getting the news his son, Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman, had been killed in Afghanistan while serving his country, doing what he loved.
Jason Hickman was born on an Army base in Alaska, but his family soon moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, where Jason graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School. He enlisted in the Army in 1999 at age 26 and served as an engineer at Ft Bragg, NC. Sgt. Hickman worked as an Army recruiter while stationed in Wisconsin, and met his wife while stationed in Ft Lewis, Washington. He served a previous tour of duty in Iraq. Sgt Jason Hickman was a para-trooper with the Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division and had been serving in Afghanistan for nearly a year. Jason and his wife Tiffany were raising their three young sons at Fort Richardson, Alaska, where his unit was due to return home next month.
Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman, 35, died January 7, 2010, from combat injuries suffered during an enemy attack at Combat Outpost Bowri Tana. He is survived by his father, wife and three sons, ages six, four, and two. Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman will be missed. REST IN PEACE. We will always remember him.
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"I told him, 'Don't go. It's too dangerous over there,'" Lance Cpl. Mark Juarez's grandmother told TV station News 4 WOAI in San Antonio. "He said, 'Grandma, I want to go. I volunteered to go. And I'll come back very soon.'"
Mark Juarez was a 2005 graduate of Holy Cross High School in San Antonio, Texas. He joined the Marine Corps in March of 2007 and reported to the 1st Battalion that November, were he was assigned as a small-arms repairman and technician. Lance Cpl. Juarez had already served one tour in Iraq before his Afghanistan deployment.
Lance Cpl. Mark D. Juarez, 23, died in the Jan 9 roadside blast near Nawa in Helmand, Afghanistan, that killed British journalist Rupert Hamer, and injured several other marines and a photographer. Mark leaves behind a one year-old son, as well as his parents, grandmother, and brother. Lance Cpl. Mark Juarez will be missed. REST IN PEACE. We will always remember him.
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Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert also served a tour of duty in Iraq before deploying with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force to Afghanistan in November 2009. Meinert always wanted to be a marine and began the enlistment process at age 17.
Jacob Meinert was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, before he moved with his family to Fort Atkinson as a teenager and where he excelled as a musician in high school. Jacob was a member of the Fort Atkinson High School chess club, and a member of his high school jazz band, marching band, concert band, pep band, and the combo that accompanied the show choir.
Jacob joined the Marine Corps in July 2007, and completed training in California, before reporting to the 1st Battalion in January 2008. He worked as a radio telephone operator and was nicknamed "Slim."
On January 10, 2010, Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert, 20, was killed by a roadside bomb while supporting combat operations near Nawa district in the south part of Helmand province, Afghanistan. Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert will be missed. REST IN PEACE. We will always remember him.
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(photos by CalNM, and here; Thanks to Timroff for our IGTNT logo.)
Helping our troops: If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider Operation Helmet, or Fisher House. Sponsoring a deployed service member at TroopCarePackage.com can provide letters or care packages that make a real difference in a military person's life. To assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here.
When our veterans come back home, they need jobs. Look at the programs of Veterans Green Jobs and Welcome Back Veterans. Encourage a Vet, and see if you can help out.
About the IGTNT series: I Got the News Today is intended to honor, respect and remind. Its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. All of the U.S. casualties can be seen here. The DoD news releases are found here. Published photos of the returning fatalities are found on the Dover AFB page. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories. Since 2001, there have been 956 American troops killed in Afghanistan. Since 2003, there have been over 4373 American troops killed in Iraq. They all had loved ones, families and friends.
Click the IGTNT tags below for previous diaries in the series which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by monkeybiz, noweasels, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, a girl in MI, Spam Nunn, JeNoCo, Janos Nation, True Blue Majority, Proud Mom and Grandma, Sandy on Signal, and me, CalNM. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but are an important service to those who have died, and show our community’s respect for our fallen brothers and sisters.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.