Sgt. Timothy Smith, U.S. Army
April 29, 2008 on 12:58 pm | In Fallen Heroes, Obituaries | 5 Comments
TIMOTHY MICHAEL SMITH
Sept. 20, 1982 to April 7, 2008
Stop-Loss
Stop-Loss orders suspend discharges so that experienced members of the
military can continue to serve at a time of national crisis. Hollywood made a
movie about it. The reality ordered Sergeant Timothy Michael Smith back
to duty last year. He died April 7th when his Humvee struck an improvised
explosive device in the streets of Baghdad. He was 25 years old.
Known to family and friends in his hometown of South Lake Tahoe as “Timmy,” the newly-married sergeant had already served one tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2006 and should have been released from the Army last November. Instead, he was redeployed to Iraq as part of the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Pretty gung-ho
Lance Cpl. Marcus Stephen Glimpse
April 6, 2008 on 11:29 am | In Fallen Heroes, Obituaries | 2 Comments
LANCE CPL. MARCUS STEPHEN GLIMPSE
1983 to 2006
[EDITOR’S NOTE: To honor the fallen heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan, Précis occasionally revisits those who have paid the ultimate price. This is the second in a series of profiles in bravery—a reminder of what we have lost.]
160 pounds of pure muscle
Few are as utterly transformed by the U.S. Marine Corps as Lance Cpl. Marcus Glimpse of Huntington Beach. Prior to entering boot camp in 2003, Marc, as everyone called him, was 129-pound high-school dropout, who couldn’t hold a job and liked to sleep the day away. He sported a fuchsia Mohawk, painted his fingernails Visigoth black and spent every waking hour playing video games or watching The Sopranos.
Then the Marines took over. By the time Marc graduated the School of Infantry in 2004, he was 160 pounds of “pure muscle,” said his father, Guy Glimpse. He went on to become an authoritative leader, volunteer for the prickliest combat assignments and inspire his collegues with his quick-draw wit.
But the Marines fired-up something else in Marcus Glimpse: ambition. Following his deployment in Iraq, he planned to go on to college and become a lawyer.
That dream came to a crashing halt