On November 14, 2011, Spc. David Hickman was killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq.
32,200 Americans are listed as wounded, but many more will carry the scars of the Iraq war for the rest of their lives
icasualties.org lists 4,484 American fatalities from the Iraq war. David Emanuel Hickman is the last name on the list. This is a tribute to him and all the men and women who have served our country honorably.
David Hick was born in January of 1988. He was a team captain and All-Conference linebacker for the Northeast Guilford Rams in North Carolina. He was also a black belt in taekwondo training under Mike King of the Greensboro Black Belt Academy. Mike King remembers him.
WFMY News
"You hear a lot of times people were genuine but I mean truly, just, if he asked you how you were doing, he want to know how you were doing," said King. "There are certain people we teach and we train that over time you somewhat let them slip out of your mind but David is just one of those people that you always have a good thought about."
His is often described as a person who never did things the easy way, a protector, a party animal, and quick with a smile and a laugh.
News & Record
“Of all the people that served, we just thought there was no way he wouldn’t come back,” said Olivia Pegram, 23, one of Hickman’s closest friends.
She called him Superman. But he was just as much like Clark Kent.
“He was the most genuine and loyal person you’d ever meet,” Pegram said. “He had the most infectious laugh that I’d give the world to hear again.”
Hickman got in a fight once. He ended up becoming friends with the guy.
“That was his personality,” Pegram continued. “He says one thing funny and you want to hang around with him.”
After high school he briefly attend Ferrum College in Virginia where he hoped to play Division 3 football, but was red shirted. So he joined the Army. His father had hoped he would follow in his foot steps and join the Air Force, but David never did things the easy way, be enlisted in the Army Airborne. He once told his younger brother Devon that you should always strive to be extraordinary.
He serving with the 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division stationed out of Fort Bragg. But even with his new Army duties, he still found time to visit his friends back in Greensboro who always looked forward to his visits.
News & Record
When high school ends, normally you part ways. People promise to call and write. But they don’t. Years pass and friends become strangers.
Hickman made sure that didn’t happen.
It wasn’t unusual for him to come back from Fort Bragg, where he was stationed, and pick up with his old classmates again. Just like old times.
Lindzay Ellis, 23, looked forward to his visits.
“There are just some people you care about,” she said, “you want to stay in touch with.”
Around Memorial Day of this year he was deployed to Iraq. He was to return home on December 1st to a surprise party planned by his Mother.
It strikes me that all this sound a little dry, a little too much like a simple biographical sketch. So I will leave you with the words of his Mother and a video by youngfonz.
"People out in the world that have kids, family, just tell each other that you love each other. You never know what might happen."
A Grateful Nation Remembers.