Wayne Cornell was born August 3,1980, in Grand Island, Nebraska. His father, Larry Cornell, was a Vietnam veteran and an electrician; his mother, Patricia, worked in a factory. When Wayne was three his parents divorced. Several years later his mother married Ronald Perrie, who became a major influence in Wayne's life.
At an early age, Wayne was attracted to martial arts. He
Later specialized in Hapkido, a Korean variant, and attained third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. In 1999 he graduated from Silver Lake High School in Roseland, Nebraska.
For a time Cornell considered becoming a police officer. But military service ran deep in the family; in addition to his father, Cornell's grandfather had served in World War II and his great-grandfather in World War I. In 2001 Wayne enlisted in the National Guard and was stationed in Hastings, Nebraska. The next year he married Patricia Warburton; the couple had three children: Dameion, Zoie, and Sadie—the third born three months after Wayne's death. He did tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He was also a volunteer fireman and emergency medical technician in Holstein, Nebraska.
In 2005 Cornell joined the U. S.Army and was stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. Soon thereafter he was sent to Iraq, where he served as a sergeant."He embraced the responsibilities, consequences and sacrifices"that went with military service, his sister, JaDeen, recalled. His family said that he never expressed opinions on the war.
On March 20,2007, while on a patrol on the outskirts of Baghdad, an IED blew up near his vehicle. He was killed. (This explosion was separate from the one that killed Glawson that same day.)
World History
