On Friday, the Department of Defense announced the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom:
They died Dec. 26 in Mosul, Iraq, of wounds suffered from small arms fire during dismounted combat operations. They were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas. Killed were Capt. Rowdy J. Inman, 38, of Panorama Village, Texas, and Sgt. Benjamin B. Portell, 27, of Bakersfield, Calif.”
Panorama Village is right outside of my hometown of Conroe, Tx — though I didn’t know Cpt. Inman or his wife Shannon personally, they were both my age and from my neck of the woods.
This morning I rode with 54 of my fellow Patriot Guard Riders to the memorial service for Cpt. Rowdy Inman in Killeen, TX.
Roses at The Daily Kos has a nice post up about Cpt. Inman:
Rowdy J. Inman, a decorated soldier and Desert Storm veteran, had served two tours in Iraq and had just been redeployed last month. His friend Krysti Kruse described him to the Courier of Montgomery County as the “ultimate dad and friend.”
Inman met his future wife, Shannon Jones, while attending Sam Houston State University. The couple married in 1999 and had two children, Keeley, age seven, and Gary, age four. “One of the first times we met, he showed me pictures of his family and told me how he met his wife,” said friend Krysti Kruse. “He was so in love with her.” The family left Conroe in 2001 for Colorado Springs, where Shannon became the head softball coach and assistant volleyball coach at Wasson High School. Later they returned to Texas.
Inman was commissioned as an officer in Sam Houston State’s ROTC program in 2000. His uniform was part of that program’s fiftieth anniversary exhibition in 2002. (A photo from the display is here.)
After two Iraq tours, Inman briefly left the army, but thUrbanGrounds › Create New Post — WordPressen he reenlisted. “His wife didn’t want him to stay in, so he got out for about one month and then got back in,” Inman’s uncle, 70-year-old Herman Dicus of Corpus Christi told the Courier of Montgomery County.
Dicus said that family members have heavy hearts. They’re “kind of tore up,” he told the Bakersfield Californian. “It’s sad,” he said. “I knew what he went through.” Dicus spent twenty years in the navy, including five Vietnam tours.
Unfortunately, the hateful protesters from Fred Phelp’s Westboro Baptist Church were on hand to protest the funeral of Cpt. Inman — probably because of the impact their presence would have outside the gates of the largest military post in the United States.
One of the most sickening things about the Phelps is that they use mostly children at their protests:
NBC News (KCEN) has the story with video as some Ft. Hood Soldiers and Killeen residents confront the protesters.
But fortunately, the PGR made sure the friends and family of Cpt. Rowdy Inman were not subjected to the Phelps Klan’s hate, as we set up a flag line between the funeral home and the UG’s (uninvited guests):
The church for Cpt. Inman’s service was standing room only, and was filled with numerous Calvary Soldiers from Ft. Hood (in their black Stetsons and spurs). After the memorial service, the family and friends joined us back outside where full military honors were rendered for Cpt. Inman.
We held our flag line until most of the visitors had left, but before they did many of them stopped by to tell us how much they appreciated our presence.
It was an honor to able to stand for Cpt. Inman today.
_______
UPDATE (January 6)
The Killeen Daily Herald has a great article about Cpt. Inman that provides a lot of insight into the kind of man he was — and from the story I can tell that Rowdy was my kind of guy.
Thanks for being there.
Left by no2liberals on January 4th, 2008 at 11:36 pm