Four Heroes

On March 20,2003,American, British, and NATO forces commenced the assault to drive Saddam Hussein from power. It marked the beginning of the second Gulf War, also known as "Operation Iraqi Freedom."Saddam was swiftly driven from power, but by March 20,2010, the seventh anniversary of the war, Americans were still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. By then, over 5,000 United States service personnel had died, including over 100 women; over 25,000 had been wounded. The following soldiers are a random sample of that group, chosen because they died on the March 20 anniversary of the onset of the war.

"Paquito" Martinez was born on December 16, 1984 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was the son of Francisco Martinez, an army soldier and air force airman, and Carmen R. Hernandez. In 2000 Paquito moved to Ft. Worth, Texas, where he joined his father, "Paco," and his stepmother Maria. His father worked as a computer software engineer. Paquito enjoyed skateboarding, drawing, poetry and Web design. He sang and performed in a rock band that played minge, grundge, and heavy metal. An "army brat," he vowed never to follow his father into military service. But several months after graduating from Eastern Hills High School in 2002,"Paquito"enlisted. He thought he might eventually go into computer-based graphic design.

In 2003 he was stationed in Korea. The next year he was sent to Iraq. He soon had doubts about the war."I will serve myself, my family, my friends, and my loved ones," he blogged."I won't serve my country, nor will I serve its leaders."

Later that year he completed a video entitled "Peacefull." Grass sways in the foreground; a hill sits in the distance. In editing the video, Martinez drained it of color: http://www. Mfconsulting. com/fm5/videos/peacefull-raw1.asf The text is sparse:

Take this time to breathe

Open your mind

Feel your worries flow free

Then a monarch butterfly, in dazzling yellows and orange, wafts across the scene.

Life is what you make of it

This last phrase was a rendering of a Meditation of Rene Descartes, the seventeenth-century French philosopher. The video was set to Moby's haunting song,"When It's Cold I'd Like to Die."

On March 20,2005, while on patrol in Tamin, Iraq, a sniper shot Martinez in the hip, severing an artery; despite trauma surgery, he died within an hour.

Curtis E. Glawson was born on June 10, 1982, in Detroit, Michigan. His parents—Yolanda and Curtis Sr.—were both career soldiers. As a child Curtis traveled with his parents from one base to another in Germany, New Mexico, Georgia, and Alabama. He learned to adapt to different people and cultures and made friends quickly; his smile was electric.

Glawson was fast and agile and

He excelled in sports. When not engaged in football, baseball, basketball and running, he enjoyed sports-related video games. He was a passionate fan of all Detroit (and Michigan) sports teams: the Tigers, Lions, Pistons,

Red Wings, and the Wolverines. Friends called him Mr. ESPN.

In 2000 Glawson graduated from Daleville high school in Alabama, near Fort Rucker. He immediately enlisted in the army. That fall he was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where he received advanced training in mechanics. Certified as a light truck mechanic, he was subsequently stationed in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Korea.

In Korea, he met Hyunjung Jang; the couple married at the United States embassy in Seoul in September, 2005.

In February, 2007 he was sent to Baghdad in Iraq. Once, when his unit made a wrong turn, they encountered a group of preteens armed with AK-47 automatic weapons. Although he grew increasingly nervous about his missions, he relished

Wayne R. Cornell.

Daniel J. Geary.

His work. When his mother urged him to beg off dangerous assignments, he replied,"No, momma, I can't do that. I have a job to do."

On the morning of March 20,2007, Glawson was sent to retrieve a truck that broke down in the outskirts of Baghdad. He went out, fixed it, and brought it back to the motor pool. Later that afternoon, his platoon sergeant asked if Curtis could rescue another disabled vehicle in a dangerous sector. "I'm good to go, sergeant,"Glawson replied."Are you sure?" the officer asked, looking him in the eye."Always ready, sergeant," Glawson replied.

That journey proved to be his last. As the road wound toward the dusty hills outside Baghdad, an improvised explosive device (lED) blew up his vehicle. Glawson was killed instantly. He wanted to be remembered as a loving son, husband, brother, friend, and dedicated soldier.