As of today, 2,114 US military personnel have been killed in or near Afghanistan. Staff Sgt Jeremie S. Border, 28, of Mesquite, TX, and Staff Sgt. Jonathan P. Schmidt, 28 of petersburg VA were two of the most recent casualties. Both will be deeply missed by their family and friends.
As an IGTNT diarist, it is impossible not to notice the increased frequency of troop losses being suffered in Afghanistan. I have always signed up for one diary a week. In the past, I was rarely required to write one of these sad diares more than once per month. Now, regularly, two or more casualties are listed on each of my selected dates. Both of these young men were killed in the same attack.
I Got The News Today (IGTNT) , which is among the oldest continuous series on Daily Kos, provides members of this community a venue to pay their respects to those who have died as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The IGTNT title is a reminder that nearly every day the family of an active duty service member receives the terrible news that their beloved has died.
Staff Sgt Jeremie S. Border
Staff Sgt Jeremie Border in better days
Residents of Mesquite, TX, remembered Jeremie Border as a State Champion High School football star and the ultimate team player.
Jeremie was a Green Beret.
"The kid was the ultimate team player, he optimized every thing you would want a kid to do,” said current Mesquite High head coach Robbie Robinson, who didn’t coach Border’s 2001 championship team but had gotten to know him. “In this ‘me’ generation, he was a throwback, always willing to sacrifice for his team.
Longtime neighbor Mary Counts said Border was “a smart, great kid who was really active in school.”
“His college roommate told us Jeremie had desired to be in the military before going to college,” Counts said. “Knowing him as a kid, we had no idea that’s what he wanted to do.” ~Dallas News
Border graduated in 2006 from McMurray University in Abilene, where he also played football for four years.
He was a Green Beret assigned to 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne), Torii Station, Japan. He was killed in action on September 1st in Batur Village, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire, according to the Department of Defense and KPBS.
His family and friends created a facebook memorial page.
Staff Sgt. Jonathan P. Schmidt
Staff Sgt Jonathan Phillip Schmidt, who had been assigned to the 192nd Special Ordinance Batallion, was also killed in action in the same attack. Also 28 at the time of his death, he left behind a wife and young son, according to an NBC news video which can be viewed
here.
He was only days away from returning home.
Jonathan Schmidt graduated from Thomas Dale High School. He joined the army and then convinced two close friends, Paul Pruitt and Richard Scott, to join up as well, according to the NBC video..
"John was all about joining the military from the time I met him," says Paul Pruitt, a long time friend. "It's just who he was."
They remained close throughout their terms of deployment.
"John was definitely a special person. I never met anybody else like him," says Pruitt.
Unfortunately on September 1, the men found out Schmidt had been killed in Afghanistan while serving in a special operations unit. Schmidt had already been on at least five deployments and was supposed to be home in two weeks.
"I'm sure he was doing what he loved, and that's how he died," says Pruitt.