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Nino D. Livaudais—July 2008 Shipment Honoree
Nino D. Livaudais
Source: USA Today, Associated Press (http://www.militarycity.com/valor/256559.html)
 Livaudais,
23, was the “image of an American,” his best friend says.
“He’s a hero, definitely,” that friend, Hayden Hatch, told
Salt Lake City’s KSL-TV. “They had to do a terrorist-type
thing in order to get him. He was definitely a strong
individual. He was a good guy. I’m proud to say he was my
friend.”
Livaudais was killed in a suicide car-bomb attack April 3
while coming to the aid of a pregnant woman standing next to
the car. The woman, who had been a passenger in the car,
also was killed.
Hatch, friends with Livaudais since junior high school, last
saw him in the summer when he went home to Utah for a
visit. Hatch said Livaudais didn’t talk much about Iraq,
except to say he was willing to serve. “He was definitely
an image of an American. He loved his country. He loved
his family. He would do anything for either,” Hatch said.
Jackie Livaudais, who has two children with Nino and is
pregnant with a third, said she was proud of her husband.
“He had a purpose,” she said. “He was doing his part as an
American. I knew I never was going to get him behind a desk.
He wanted to make the world better and get the bad guys.”
She wasn’t surprised her husband would have rushed to aid a
pregnant woman. “What man wouldn’t run to that?” she said.
Livaudais, who also served in Afghanistan twice, planned to
make the military his career. He graduated from high school
in Ogden in 1997, joined the Army in 1998 and became a
Ranger in 1999.
Utah Soldier Buried at
Arlington
Source: Arlington National Cemetery
Website (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/nino-livaudais.htm)
17 April 2003
ARLINGTON, Virginia -- With a breeze off the Potomac River
freshening the unseasonably warm noon, a group of 50
mourners solemnly watched as Army Staff Sgt. Nino Dugue
Livaudais of Syracuse was buried Wednesday in Arlington
National Cemetery.
The 23-year-old Army Airborne Ranger from the Davis County
community was one of three soldiers killed April 3 at a
coalition checkpoint near Haditha Dam in western Iraq when
they approached a vehicle while attempting to help a
screaming pregnant woman. In an apparent suicide attack, a
bomb in the vehicle detonated, killing the two female
occupants along with Livaudais, 27-year-old Captain Russell
B. Rippetoe, of Arvada, Colorado, and 21-year-old Specialist
Ryan Long of Seaford, Delaware.
Livaudais, whose 24th birthday would have been April 30, was
born in the Philippines and emigrated to the United States
with his mother, Divina, who lives in Syracuse. His late
father Howard, an Air Force veteran, was a survivor of the
Bataan Death March.
Besides his mother, four brothers and two sisters, Livaudais
is survived by his 21-year-old wife, Jackie, a native of
Clinton, and their two sons, Destre, 5, and Carson, 2, who
live in Fort Mitchell. Alanama Jackie Livaudais is
pregnant with the couple's third child.
According to statements released through Fort Benning, his
family remembered Livaudais as a humble man who cared for
the less fortunate.
"He was always looking out for others," Jackie Livaudais
said. "He'd pile needy men into the back of his pickup and
take them to McDonald's where he'd buy food for them."
As a matter of practice before leaving on a combat
deployment, Army rangers write a letter to be forwarded to
their families in case they die.
Fort Benning officials released a portion of Livaudais'
last letter to his loved ones.
"Please know I died defending my family and my beliefs," he
wrote. "I just hope in the event of my death, that a lot
more of my comrades and fellow Americans' lives will be
saved."
A memorial fund for Livaudais' children has been set up
through America First Credit Union.
Other Links
http://legacy.com/WashingtonPost/Soldier/Story.aspx?Page=FSStory&PersonID=3097100
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20030412/ai_n11386333
http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/livaudaisninod.html
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