The Department of Defense announced the death of a Fort Campbell, Kentucky soldier killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan:
Pfc. Jonathan David Hall, 23,
of Anchorage, Alaska and Chattanooga, Tennessee
Pfc. Hall was an Army Platoon Combat Medic assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Since 2001, there have been 1044 American troops killed in Afghanistan, and since 2003, 4391 American troops killed in Iraq. The (IGTNT) "I Got The News Today" title is a reminder that each casualty has family and friends who received the heart-wrenching news that their loved one
will not be coming home. Please take a moment below to remember them and their sacrifice.
Pfc. Jonathan David Hall, 23, an Airborne combat medic, was confirmed killed in action on April 8th in Command Outpost Rushmore, Paktika Province, Afghanistan.
Pfc. Hall was mortally wounded with a massive head injury when the vehicle he was riding in was damaged by a roadside bomb explosion a day earlier. He was flown to the U.S. Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Kaiserslautern, Germany.
According to an obituary in Anchorage Daily News (photo source),
"Life support was removed April 11, 2010, upon request of the family for vital organ removal. Pfc. Hall now lives through six young German men who are the recipients of his heart, lungs, a kidney and pancreas, the other kidney, with two sharing his liver.
In addition, a number of individuals benefited from miscellaneous blood vessels, tendons, and ligaments."
Jonanthan David Hall was born in 1986 at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee, and after joining the Army he was stationed at Fort Campbell, which is located both in Tennessee and Kentucky. He enjoyed his time spent at the Hall family farm near Clarksville, Tennessee, especially when his extended family gathered during the Thanksgiving holidays.
But since 1989, Pfc. Hall considered Anchorage, Alaska his hometown, where his father is a Lt. Colonel with the 176th Wing Medical Group, Elmendorf Air Force Base. Jonathan Hall graduated from New Direction School in 2004 in Anchorage and continued his education with classes in Clarksville, "studying art with a passion."
Hall also considered Chattanooga, Tennessee his home. He "grew up in Anchorage but lived with his grandparents in Chattanooga for about seven months while he went through his enlistment process," explained his grandfather in the Anchorage Daily News (story and quotes source).
"He loved Chattanooga," said his grandmother in the adn story.
Jonathan Hall joined the Army in October 2008 and arrived at Fort Campbell in August 2009.
This was Pfc. Hall's first deployment with the 101st Airborne, the Rakkasans, where he was known as
"Doc" by his men at Alpha Company.
(AP Photo Dover AFB)
Pfc. Hall loved the service and talked about making the military a career. The Chattanooga Times Free Press also reports that Hall's colleagues and relatives said he was dedicated to helping others on the battlefield:
Jonathan David Hall was so intent on serving his country as a medic that he enlisted the help of his East Brainerd grandfather, a 40-year military veteran, to get into an elite Tennessee National Guard "active first" program.
The special enlistment program allows people without prior military service to join the Guard, then do a stint in the active duty Army.
"Very few qualify for the ‘active first’ program because it has a higher standard," said Tennessee Army National Guard Capt. Jim Ridings.
.... "He was dedicated to becoming the best he could be ... and his focus was to help other people, whether that meant treating blisters on their feet or patching up open wounds."
"Even on this patrol, he volunteered to go because he wanted to be with his men," his grandfather said.
"As it turned out, he was the one who did not survive the attack."
A burial is planned for Monday in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
Pfc. Jonathan David Hall is survived by his father, mother, paternal and maternal grandparents, sister, great grandmother, uncle, his Army unit, and hometown friends.
Pfc. Jonathan David Hall will be missed. REST IN PEACE
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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 at guardian angels for soldierspet.
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 remember the fallen, and to remind us that each of the fallen has loved ones left behind. All of the casualties can be found at icasualties, and the DoD news releases at defense gov/releases. 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 1044 American troops killed in Afghanistan. Since 2003, there have been 4391 American troops killed in Iraq.
(photos by CalNM; Thanks to Timroff for our IGTNT logo.)
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.