These soldiers gave all

By April M. Silvaggio  

JANUARY 29, 2010 10:09 a.m. (0)

At the start of this week, the casualty count in the nine years of war was 5,318 – 4,360 in Operation Iraqi Freedom and 958 in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Twenty-three of them considered the Upstate home.

“South Carolina has given what we hold most dear,” said U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, who attended the funeral of the latest Upstate casualty, Army Pfc. Geoffrey A. Whitsitt of Taylors, a military police officer who served with the U.S. Army Airborne out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

He was killed Jan. 13 in Afghanistan when an improvised explosive device detonated near his humvee, three weeks shy of his 22nd birthday.

“Geoff was doing what he loved,” U.S. Navy Mineman 2nd Class Petty Officer Steven S. Whitsitt Jr., said of his younger brother.

That sentiment ties these soldiers together. Here are their stories:

The Upstate’s first casualty was U.S. Marine Pvt. Nolen R. Hutchings of Boiling Springs, who was killed March 23, 2003 by friendly fire on the outskirts of Nasiriyah.

His unit had been trying to secure a bridge and help wounded soldiers when it was hit by an errant strike from an Air Force A-10 warplane providing air support.

Hutchings, part of the Marine 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., was one of eight in his unit to die that day.

Family members said Hutchings grew up wanting to be a Marine, and signed up after graduating from high school in 2000. “He was proud to be a Marine,” his father Larry Hutchings said. “We were proud of him.”

U.S. Army Pfc. Michael S. Adams, a 20-year-old from Spartanburg, was killed five months later. Adams was participating in a small arms fire exercise on Aug. 21, 2003 when a bullet ricocheted and ignited a fire inside a building. He died from smoke inhalation.

He had joined the Army in 2001 after graduating from high school, and friends described him as unassuming with a big smile. He was stationed at the Army 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division in Baumholder, Germany.

Four months later, U.S. Army Spc. Rian C. Ferguson, 22, of Taylors, who was assigned to the Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based in Fort Carson, Colo., died of injuries sustained Dec. 14, 2003 when he was thrown from a tactical vehicle after it hit a bump near Al Asad, Iraq.

The 2000 graduate of Riverside High School in Greer was treated by the 945th Forward Surgical Team but died from chest trauma, the Army said.

Ferguson’s father, Jimmy, said later he had told his wife earlier that day after the news of Saddam Hussein’s capture that maybe their son would be coming home soon. A few hours later, she spotted two soldiers walking towards their door.

Less than a month later, U.S. Army Capt. Kimberly N. Hampton was dead.

The 27-year-old Easley resident was an honors graduate at Presbyterian College, and a member of the school’s tennis team. She never lost a match.

She became battalion commander of the ROTC at Presbyterian, a job that prepared her to lead the Delta Troop in the 1st Squadron of the 17th Calvary Regiment in Iraq.

She was on her second tour of military service when the OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter she was piloting was shot down on Jan. 2, 2004.

Hampton, who was based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., was the first female pilot killed in Iraq, and the first South Carolina woman to die there.

On Sept 20, 2004, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Tony B. Olaes of Walhalla was killed when his patrol vehicle was ambushed by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Shkin, Afghanistan.

A Special Forces combat medic, the 30-year-old Olaes was born in Salem, Mass., and raised in Oconee County. He attended Seneca High School and earned his general equivalency diploma after enlisting.

Olaes had joined the South Carolina National Guard in 1992, gotten out in 1998, and signed up for the Army in 1999.

Barely a month had passed before U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Travis A. Fox, 25, would lose his life. The 1998 Broome High School graduate was killed on Oct. 30, 2004 along with seven other Marines in one of the deadliest days of fighting the U.S. had faced in Iraq.

Being a Marine was a dream for Fox, who friends said wore his uniform every time he returned home to Cowpens.

A newlywed, Fox and his bride, Casie, had just spent several weeks in Hawaii, where he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment at Kaneohe Bay in Windward Oahu.

The wedding photos hadn’t been ordered when he died.

Two months later, another small Spartanburg County town suffered a loss when U.S. Army 1st Lt. Andrew C. Shield of Campobello was killed in an Apache helicopter accident during a night mission near Mosul.

The 25-year-old pilot, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, South Carolina Army National Guard out of Columbia, died Dec. 9.

He was a Wofford College graduate.

U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Stephen C. High was killed April 6, 2005, in a CH-47 helicopter crash in Ghazni, Afghanistan.

High was part of an 18-man crew on board the CH-47 Chinook helicopter when it went down in a sandstorm about 80 miles south of the capital of Kabul. Two other South Carolina soldiers were killed in the crash: Maj. Edward J. Murphy, 36, of Mount Pleasant, and U.S. Army National Guard Spc. Chrystal G. Stout, 23, of Travelers Rest.

High and Stout were both part of the Army National Guard’s 228th Signal Brigade based out of Spartanburg.

Stout was a 1999 graduate of Trinity Christian Academy where she played basketball. She was enrolled in the Liberty University long-distance program, studying from Afghanistan.

Two months later, U.S. Army Sgt. Anthony Jones, a driver with the 233rd Heavy Equipment Transporter Platoon, was on his third tour in Iraq when he was killed June 14, 2005, after an explosive detonated near his vehicle as he traveled in a convoy.

Born in Sumter, he had lived in Easley between 1998 and 2000.

He was planning to re-enlist, with a dream of attending a training school in Germany to become a scout. His long-term goal was to become an Army Ranger.

Two months later, U.S. Army Reserves Sgt. Edward R. Heselton, 23, was killed. It was Aug. 11, 2005, when ordnance exploded near the vehicle he was driving.

A 2000 graduate of Berea High School where he played trombone in the band, Heselton had been in Afghanistan four months. He died leading a convoy headed to repair military vehicles needed to clear the way for building a road. He left behind a wife and 13-month-old daughter.

On Aug. 21, 2005, a makeshift bomb detonated under a wooden bridge as a convoy of Humvees crossed, killing U.S. Army Sgt. Michael R. Lehmiller of Anderson. The incident happened while the 23-year-old was conducting patrol operations near Baylough, Afghanistan.

Stationed in Vicenza, Italy, Lehmiller had attended ITT Technical Institute in Greenville.

U.S. Army Pfc. Satieon V. Greenlee of Pendleton was killed on Oct. 2, 2006, by enemy small arms fire in Baghdad. The 24-year-old was hit by a sniper while on an escort mission with the Personal Security Detachment platoon, part of the Headquarters Company of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.

Friends who served with him remembered the boundless dreams he had for his wife and two children, whose photographs he carried inside his helmet.

Five months later, U.S. Army Pfc. Joey T. Sams II of Spartanburg died of injuries suffered when he was pinned between two vehicles in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, while working in the motor pool. That was March 21, 2007.

Sams, 22, who was stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., was a 2004 graduate of Spartanburg High School, and had attended Spartanburg Technical College, studying computer technology. He joined the Army to help him with his goal of becoming a police detective.

That same day, U.S. Army Sgt. Adrian J. Lewis, 30, of Mauldin, died of wounds suffered when his unit ran into enemy forces using small arms fire during combat operations in Ramadi. The father of four was on his third tour of duty in Iraq. He’d just left in January, and was scheduled home for two weeks of leave in July.

Lewis attended Southside High School, and worked for a while at Michelin before joining the Army in 2000.

On May 25, 2007, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal David P. Lindsey of Spartanburg was killed in a non-hostile incident in Habbaniyah, Iraq.

The 20-year-old’s father spoke with him the night before he died.

Military officials told the family the 2005 Spartanburg High School graduate died from a gunshot wound to the head, and that it could have occurred while he was on guard duty.

Lindsey joined the Marines in October 2005, and had been stationed in Iraq as an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines since January 2007. He was scheduled to return home that August.

On Aug. 15, 2007, U.S. Army Spc. Zandra T. Walker, 28, of Greenville, was killed in Taji, Iraq, during an enemy attack. Walker fueled helicopters and was serving her second tour.

She graduated from Woodmont High School in 1997, and joined the Army with her twin sister, Yolanda, during their second year at South Carolina State University. Yolanda Worthy was serving in Kuwait when her sister was killed.

One month later, on Sept. 14, 2007, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Terry D. Wagoner of Piedmont was killed when a makeshift bomb detonated near his vehicle during combat operations in Baghdad.

The 28-year-old joined the Army in 2000 and was serving his second tour in Iraq. Friends described him as the heart and soul of his unit. A third-generation soldier, he graduated from Woodmont High School where he was a member of the track team.

He was expected to return to South Carolina on leave that October.

The next casualty from South Carolina occurred Jan. 2, 2008 when U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Shawn F. Hill was killed after his vehicle struck a makeshift bomb in Khowst Province, Afghanistan.

The Spartanburg County native and former all-region football player at Byrnes High School graduated from Byrnes in 1990 and married his high school sweetheart. The couple made their home in Wellford and had three sons.

Hill, 37, had been a member of the National Guard for nearly 12 years, and was serving his second tour oversees. He’d been in Afghanistan since January 2007 when he was killed.

Almost five months later, on May 25, 2008, U.S. Army Specialist David L. Leimbach of Taylors was killed when his unit was attacked with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades in Bala Baluk, Afghanistan.

The 38-year-old soldier who volunteered for six more months of duty in Afghanistan after his unit returned home to South Carolina died while assisting in the recovery of a stolen vehicle.

Before joining the National Guard, Leimbach had served the military as a U.S. Marine and a member of the Marine Corps Reserve.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Raphael A. Futrell of Anderson died March 25, 2009, in a non-combat related incident in Baghdad.

Family members said the 26-year-old had always wanted to work in law enforcement, and was serving as a military police officer and worked with bomb-sniffing and attack dogs. It was his second deployment to the region.

The Defense Department has not released details of Futrell’s death.

On Sept. 10, 2009, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Christopher S. Fowlkes died from wounds sustained seven days earlier while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Fowlkes, 20, died at a military hospital in Germany, where he was receiving treatment from injuries he suffered during an explosion. The Gaffney native’s parents were with him when he died.

Then two weeks ago, the military vehicle military families know to look out for arrived at the home of Steve and Debby Whitsitt of Travelers Rest.

Mrs. Whitsitt said during a eulogy of her son on Saturday, “We couldn’t believe it when the car pulled up.”

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said, “Their bravery has done more than simply win battles and wars,” he said. “It has secured a way of life for every American, and they are owed a debt we can never fully repay.”