Tonight we celebrate the life of a young man who served our nation for eleven years - Sergeant Brent M. Maher.
Sergeant Brent M. Maher
Brent M. Maher was born December 3, 1979 in Hamburg, Iowa. He grew up in Imogene, Iowa and graduated from Farragut High School in 1998. He also attended Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, Nebraska.
Maher enlisted in the US Navy in June 1998, and serving eight years. He then joined the Iowa National Guard in May 2007 and was assigned to Company D, 1st Battalion, 168th Infantry, in Denison. He transferred to Company B, 1-168th Infantry, Shenandoah, in January 2008, where he was assigned as an Infantryman.
He had three children from a previous marriage who are now 9, 8, and 4 years old. He married Brenna of Honey Creek, Iowa, on August 1, 2009. One year later Maher left for his deployment. On August 1st of last year, he was sent with a 2,800-soldier contingent, the largest Iowa deployment since World War II, to Afghanistan.
The Iowa soldiers reported to their mobilization station at Camp Shelby in Mississippi in July of 2010 for additional training and preparation before departing. The unit arrived in Afghanistan in November 2010, where the soldiers provide full-spectrum operations in a combat theater, including lethal and non-lethal capabilities, support to Afghan National Army and Police units, and assistance to humanitarian relief initiatives. According to the WOWT.com site, which quotes Brent’s mother as saying that “it doesn’t seem real” to her:
"Good people touch lives...and this guy did," said Brent's stepfather Mick Tyner. "He loved helping struggling people and was always in the military. He wanted to serve."
As a specialist with the 168th Infantry Bravo Company, Maher was stationed at Combat Outpost Dand Patan. The outpost is in far eastern Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.
Maher was a gunner on mounted patrol in a convoy in the Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan. He would work standing atop a "Cougar" Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, keeping watch for enemy insurgents. “It takes an amazing amount of personal courage to get up and do that gunner's job every day," Colonel Gregory Hapgood said at a press conference.
While Maher stood in a gun turret, an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up under the armored truck during the patrol near the city of Gardez. Maher was killed in the attack which occurred at approximately 1 pm local Afghanistan time. He was 31 years old.
Wounded in the attack were Sergeant 1st Class Nicholas Jedlicka, of Council Bluffs, Specialist Justin Christiansen, of Nebraska City and Specialist Dustin Morrison, of New Market, Iowa. It was reported that all three were transferred to a hospital in Germany for treatment.
Specialist Brent M. Maher was posthumously promoted to sergeant. Survivors of Sergeant Brent M. Maher include his wife, Brenna, of Council Bluffs; mother, Cheryl Tyner; stepfather Mick Tyner; a brother, Greg Maher, of Biloxi, Mississippi; grandparents Roy and Wilma McGraw, of Essex, Louisiana; and three young children, Kaitlyn, Matthew, and Hannah, who live with their mother in Michigan. He was preceded in death by his father, Matthew Maher. Funeral arrangements are pending in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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Helping our troops:
If you wish to assist our military and their families, consider contributing to Fisher House. Donating to Netroots for the Troops provides 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. 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 US troops. Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, noweasels, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, SpamNunn, a girl in MI, JeNoCo, Mediaprof, TrueBlueMajority, JanosNation, Proud Mom and Grandma, Ministry of Truth, CalNM, Wide Awake in Kentucky, Ms Wings, maggiejean, racheltracks, JaxDem, and kestrel9000. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but are an important service to those who have died, and show our community’s respect for them.
Fallen service members whose names have been released by the US Department of Defense will usually be diarized 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.