Tonight we remember two U.S. soldiers who died in service to their country last week: Pfc. Matthew E. Wildes of Hammond, Louisiana, and Staff Sgt. Kurt R. Curtiss of Murray, Utah, who were killed in Afghanistan. Please join with the Daily Kos community below to celebrate their lives and honor their memory.
If you are new to the IGTNT diaries, thank you for coming to pay your respects. IGTNT stands for "I Got the News Today." The phrase is meant to symbolize that terrible knock on the door that any number of families got today, bringing with it the news that a loved one has died. IGTNT is a diary series intended to honor, respect, and remind.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members honored here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics
MATTHEW E. WILDES: "He was a sweet kid"
On Friday the Department of Defense announced the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom:
Pfc. Matthew E. Wildes, 18, of Hammond, La., died Aug. 27 in Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
Matthew Wildes was determined to join the army and took his GED in order to enter the army as early as he could. Although his parents tried to dissuade him, he signed up in April 2008.
Wildes was in the 3,500-soldier 4th Brigade Combat Team, which has been in Afghanistan since May. The brigade patrols four provinces in southeast Afghanistan and is pushing into remote areas, often making long foot marches to villages. The unit introduces programs to improve life for villagers, such as helping farmers with fertilizer and creating jobs by opening a furniture factory. The idea is to provide jobs to those who might otherwise join the insurgency because they lack other sources of income.
His mother, Mary Wildes, talked to her son on the day before he died. She says, ""He was a sweet kid.... He didn’t like me saying that, but he was a kid."
Matthew Wildes was killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle in a 4th Brigade convoy.
May he rest in peace.
(Sources: Colorado Springs Gazette, here and here)
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KURT R. CURTISS: "He wanted to make a difference in the world"
On Friday the Department of Defense also announced today the death of another soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom:
Staff Sgt. Kurt R. Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah, died Aug. 26 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Kurt Curtiss grew up in Arizona and moved to Salt Lake City when he was a teen. In addition to his four siblings, Curtiss had more than 60 foster siblings. He had won awards for two of his favorite activities - martial arts and American Indian dancing at powwows. He married his wife, Elizabeth, in 2000; she and their two children, Joshua, age nine, and Cecilia, age six, live in Alaska.
Curtiss had done two tours in Iraq and had been wounded more than once. His deployment to Afghanistan in December was his third Middle East tour. When talking to his mother, Ruth Serrano, he described the Afghanistan deployment as "brutal."
Last Tuesday, Curtiss was shot and killed as his unit tried to clear a group of insurgents from a hospital in the Paktika Province. Leading his unit, he was the first one to enter the hospital and was caught in crossfire. No other soldiers were injured.
His mother recalled that Curtiss was a joker who "could cheer up anybody." And his foster sister, Liz Hunter, said, "I just remember him being funny all the time. You could not be sad around that man.... And every time we would send him a care package with cookies and candies and that, he would give it to children over there."
Utah governor Gary Herbert issued this statement of condolences to the family:
We appreciate the service of Staff Sergeant Curtiss, who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving his country in Afghanistan. We anguish with his family at this time, and recognize the significant sacrifice they, too, have made in the name of freedom. Jeanette and I extend our deepest condolences and prayers to Staff Sergeant Curtiss' family, including his wife and children in Alaska. He is truly one of this country's, and this state's, heroes.
May he rest in peace.
(Sources: Salt Lake Tribune, ksl.com, Deseret News, Ogden Standard-Examiner, Utah governor Gary R. Herbert)
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If you want to do something to assist our military and their families, please consider anysoldier.com, Fisher House, or Books for Soldiers. If you have frequent flyer miles you would like to donate to hospitalized veterans or their families, see Fisher House's Hero Miles program. If you would like to assist the animal companions of our deployed military, information is available here. Sending your own care package to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan is easy; read how at anysoldier.com. Other ways to support the troops are in this diary. And don't forget them when they get home. Visit welcomebackveterans.org and Hire Heroes USA to learn what you can do.
August has been the deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with a total of 46 deaths as of August 28. As of this writing, 4,336 members of the U.S. armed services have been confirmed killed in action in Iraq, and one is missing or captured; in Afghanistan, 807 U.S. forces have died. (The Department of Defense news releases cited in IGTNT diaries can be found here.) In addition, 318 other coalition forces from Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom have died in Iraq, and 540 other coalition forces from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have died in Afghanistan. More than 31,000 U.S. servicemen and women have been wounded in Iraq, and the suicide rate among servicemen and women is very high. The death toll among Iraqis is unknown but exceeds 100,000 and probably is several hundreds of thousands. At least 157 journalists have been killed in Iraq during the war.
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor service members who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. 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. The series, which was begun by i dunno, is currently 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. If you would like to participate in writing these tributes, please contact Sandy on Signal, monkeybiz, or noweasels.
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and families of the service members chronicled here. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.