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Jonathan
Pfender—February 2006 Shipment
Honoree
Army
Pvt., 22, of Evansville, Ind.; assigned to the 1st Battalion,
187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st
Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed Dec. 30, 2005
when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee
during patrol operations in Bayji, Iraq.
Soldier who died
in Iraq sought change
Source:
Associated Press and Courier-Journal.com
An
Indiana soldier killed in Iraq joined the Army because he
wanted to take his life in a new direction, his mother said.
Pvt. Jonathan R. Pfender, who was based at Fort Campbell, Ky.,
had thought about joining the military since seventh grade,
said his mother, Peggy Jo Hammond.
Last
spring, he quit his job at Pizza Hut and joined the Army.
Pfender, 22, believed he had gotten "lazy" and wanted to do
more with his life, Hammond said Sunday. "I asked him about
the National Guard or Reserves, and he said, 'I'm going all
out,' " she said. " 'I'm going in the Army … I want to go to
Iraq.' "
Pfender,
of Evansville, was killed by an improvised explosive device
during a patrol Friday in Bayji, Iraq, the Army said. Pfender
was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment,
3rd Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. He was the 52nd
military service member from Indiana to die in the war.
Family
members mourned his loss Sunday, but said they were proud of
him. Hammond said she knew her son, a 2001 graduate of North
Posey High School, likely would be sent to Iraq but backed his
decision "250 percent." She showed her support by getting her
son's picture tattooed on her arm. The tattoo depicts her son
in uniform standing in front of a U.S. flag. Pfender was
impressed when he saw the tattoo during a visit home before
his deployment Sept. 16, family members said.
"Jonathan
is still a part of my heart that I could not ever explain to
anybody if I ever tried. That's why this is on my arm,"
Hammond said. "It's a pride I can't explain." Pfender wanted
to be an Army Ranger, but high blood pressure kept him out of
the unit, his mother said.
Pfender's
father and stepmother, Randy and Jackie Pfender of Ohio, were
in the Evansville area when they learned of Jonathan's death.
Hammond said Army officials told her that her son's body is in
Kuwait and an autopsy will be conducted in Dover, Del., before
his body is returned home.
He
had been scheduled to return to the United States for two
weeks in June. Hammond said she last spoke with her son by
phone Christmas Day. "I got a half-hour," she said. "It was
the longest I ever got to talk to him." She said she ended the
conversation the same way she had told her son good night
since he was little: "Night night, sweet dreams, I love you."
Other web sites about Jonathan are:
http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2006/nr20060101-12251.html
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4307478
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10676197
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