There are too many to list them all, but here's a thread to remember just some of the people I'll be thinking about today, remembered here chronologically by when they died. I hope it makes them more than just names on a list.

CPT Russ Rippetoe was killed at Haditha 3 APR 03 as a company FSO in 3/75. He had previously been in 319th AFAR, where we served and went through propblast together. He was the first person I really knew to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

CPT James Shull had been a FA OBC classmate. We parted ways as we left FT Sill and then ran into each other in Baghdad when my BN from the 82nd was attached to his BDE from 1AD. I saw him last the day before he was killed on 17 NOV 03

MAJ Paul Syverson (VMI '93) of 5th SFG had been through the initial phases of OEF (where he was wounded) and was about to leave for CGSC when he was killed in a rocket attack in Balad on 16 APR 04. He had been in the same company I was at VMI and we both commanded HSC/3/5 at Grp

SGT Ryan Doltz (VMI '00) had been a year behind me in the same company at VMI. I don't know anyone who didn't love Ryan and think he was just a loveable, upbeat, funny guy. He was killed by an IED in Baghdad on 5 JUN 04.

As I mentioned, Syverson and Doltz were both in the same company at VMI, and they were both killed in the late spring/ early summer of 05. They lie in Arlington just four graves apart from each other

Capt James Edge (VMI '96) was a legend when I showed up at school. One of the most feared members of the RDC (Rat Disciplinary Committee), he was spoken about as an almost mystical figure by us Rats. He was killed in Ramadi on 14 APR 05

LT Ryan Betton (VMI '98) was a year ahead of me in the same company at school. He had been one of my cadre CPLs my Rat year who made sure my first year was "interesting." He then became a great friend. He was an E-2C pilot who was killed on 17 AUG 07 in a failed cat launch.

Syverson, Doltz, and Betton's pictures all hang on the wall in the front of my old company's room at VMI

I met CPT Ben Tiffner through a mutual friend when all 3 of us were ODA cdrs at 5th SFG. We hung out several times after, including in Jordan as I was on a JCET and he was on PDSS for his. He was killed by an EFP in Baghdad early into our OIF V deployment on 7 NOV 07.

SSG Jason Brown was one of the first NCOs I got to know well when I joined my BN in Iraq after the Q course. After that deployment, we were both in B/3/5. An absolutely hilarious guy everyone in the company loved. He was killed while taking the fight to the enemy on 17 APR 08.

Jason's death affected me much more than most. I became very bitter for about 2 years. I couldn't shake the thought that his daughter, Alyssa, would grow up without her father when so many other kids, whose fathers didn't choose to do what Jason did, would have theirs.

MAJ Tom Kennedy and I served together in 2/319th during OIF I. Everyone loved Tom. He showed up after doing his first year in Korea, but immediately was right at home with the LTs who grew up in the BN.
He was killed by a SVEST on 8 AUG 12, an attack targeting @JamesMingus12

I'm going to save more thorough comments for SSG Jason McDonald and SSG Scott Studenmund for the anniversary of their deaths (2 weeks from now). They were both killed on 9 JUN 14 while facing Talib forces with ODA 5125.

I met CPT Andrew Ross in the MFF course. Turned out he grew up in Lexington, VA, and that his cousin was my Brother Rat and his Mom and Dad had worked at VMI while I was there. Despite this, he chose to go to West Point. He was killed in AFG on 27 NOV 18.

I knew CW2 Jonathan Farmer when he first showed up in B/3/5 after finishing SFQC. He was with our ODB when I was a team leader and then moved to an ODA before the end of OIF V. He was killed in a SVEST attack in Syria on 16 JAN 19. He was a father of four.