SSG Jeremy Dale Vrooman

This week I traveled out to FOB (Forward Operating Base) Warhorse, northeast of Baghdad. It's actually only 35 miles as the crow flies, but from appearances, it could be 300 miles away. It's really a desolate location, as are many of our FOBs.

We arrived around 3 pm that afternoon, and learned that at 5 pm there would be a memorial service for a soldier that had died last week. He was SSG. Jeremy D. Vrooman, originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I didn't know SSG. Vrooman, but felt compelled to attend the memorial service. You see, most of my days are spent in the relative luxury and solid security of the International Zone.....thanks to the many soldiers like SSG. Vrooman. Anytime I travel outside the International Zone, or off one of the FOBs, I'm guarded by young men just like SSG. Vrooman....young guys wearing 50 lbs of body armour, carrying backpacks of gear and their weapons. Guys sweating so much that they drink a few gallons of water every day. Young men hoping they complete today's mission without any "incidents". Young men and women just hoping to finish their tour and return home to their family.

A week earlier, SSG. Vrooman was on a patrol outside of FOB Warhorse, "clearing" some houses that were suspected of being Al Qaeda hold-outs. He was leading his patrol and was about 45 seconds ahead of the rest of his men. He walked into a house, and triggered a booby trap bomb that claimed his life. That was one of eleven homes in that area with booby traps!! By entering the house first, his actions cost him his life, but saved the lives of his men. He could have stayed back near the vehicles, after all, he was the patrol leader, the senior among his men. But, he was, as the military says "leading from the front"...not asking his men to do anything that he wouldn't do.

SSG. Jeremy D. Vrooman leaves a wife and two small children. Was his death worth the loss? Will this war leave Iraq a better place? How many more young men and women from our armed forces will die? Will we defeat terrorism? When will Iraq be able to govern and protect itself? I don't know the answers to these questions. I do know that SSG. Jeremy Vrooman deserves my honor and respect. May God bless him, his family, and all the other soldiers and civilians who have given the ultimate sacrifice to this war. Jeremy Vrooman is one of the 4,124 soldiers who have died in Iraq.