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Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Jacques Brunson: Leaving kids ‘pained him’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sylvester â€â€? Before his 30th birthday last month, Spc. Jacques “Gus” Brunson asked his family not to send him any presents in Iraq.
Spc. Jacques Brunson
Instead, he requested coloring books, crayons, pencils, sunglasses and toys for the Iraqi children he would see while on combat patrols. “He was caring and he would do anything for you,” said Jennifer Hunt, 24, Brunson’s youngest sister.
Brunson, 30, was one of the four members of the Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
As family members and friends of Brunson gathered Wednesday in this southwest Georgia community, they recalled an easygoing youngster with a reputation as a dependable friend and a devoted father to his own two children, Kayla, 9, and Jake, 8.
“He was a great dad,” said Hunt. “When it came to Jake and Kayla, that was his life. There was not one thing he would not do for them.” Brunson’s mother, Cathy, the deputy tax commissioner for Worth County, is still recuperating from a recent thyroid operation, her family and friends said, and is having difficulty dealing with the devastating news.
Friends said Brunson gave up a job as a guard at the Sumter County Correctional Institute two years ago in hopes of finding better-paying work. He joined the National Guard about that time.
But his plans did not work out as he had hoped, said Josh Reynolds, a close friend. Brunson worked at a number of low-paying jobs over the last two years. His last job before he was mobilized in January was as a meat cutter at a grocery store.
The regular paychecks of an active-duty soldier, supplemented by overseas pay and combat pay, were welcomed by Brunson.
“He put a lot of thought into it before leaving his kids,” said Reynolds, 30. “He could afford to support his kids and defend his country, too.”
“It really pained him to leave them,” Reynolds added.
John Thomas: Soldier kept up family tradition
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Valdosta â€â€? Sgt. John Thomas was fascinated with America’s space program.
Sgt. John Thomas
On Tuesday, the day Michelle Thomas got word that her son had been killed in Iraq, she paid tribute to him by going to a friend’s house near Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
“She was proud, obviously proud of what he did,” said Joe Perron, who spoke Wednesday on behalf of his sister, Michelle, who lives in Rockledge, Fla.
John Thomas, 33, a graduate of Valdosta High School, also loved the military. Men in his family had served for generations, including his grandfather and late father, who both served in the Air Force. Thomas attended Shimer College in Waukegan, Ill., for a year, then left to join the Marines.
He served for four years. In 2003, he decided to join the Army National Guard. In civilian life, he worked in construction and ran heavy equipment at a local bakery and supermarket.
Thomas’ relatives said he knew there was a chance he would be sent to Iraq.
He was excited when he got word that his Valdosta-based unit was being sent to Iraq, said an aunt, Elisa Thomas. “He was happy and proud,” she said. “He was scared, but he was looking forward to it.”
Grandparents John Frank and Manuela Thomas of Valdosta, who helped raise their grandson, remembered a sweet, spiritual young man. They said he didn’t belong to any one church, but spent time at several churches of different denominations, worshipping and learning about their beliefs.
Family members haven’t worked out the details of his funeral, though they plan to hold it in Valdosta. The grandparents say he will be buried at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, where his father, Antonio Thomas, is buried. Antonio Thomas died four years ago, but the family didn’t bury his ashes until about three months ago. The young soldier was there, and his relatives said he told them that was where he wanted to be buried someday.
‘They were the best bunch of guys’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Related:
Jacques Brunson: Leaving kids ‘pained him’
James Kinlow: Wife mourns ‘best friend’
John Thomas: Kept up family tradition
Camp Stryker, Iraq � When Spc. James Cribb accidentally fell into a foxhole during training at Fort Stewart earlier this year, Staff Sgt. Carl Fuller never let him forget it.
Sgt. Carl Fuller
“He would show how I fell and crack everyone up,” Cribb said Tuesday as he stood under the blazing sun at a rehearsal for a memorial service today for Fuller and three other 48th Brigade Combat Team soldiers.
The four Georgians â€â€? Fuller, of Covington, Sgt. James Kinlow of Thomson, Sgt. John Thomas of Valdosta and Spc. Jacques “Gus” Brunson of Sylvester â€â€? were assigned to Alpha Company of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment. They died Sunday when their Humvee was hit by a massive roadside bomb in southwest Baghdad.
While his family could not be reached for comment, his comrades remembered Fuller as a gregarious, fun-loving soldier.
“He was such a clown,” Staff Sgt. Ernest Thompson of Albany said. “As I visualize him now, all I can see are his teeth. You never saw him without a smile.”
“This has been devastating,” Thompson said. “They were the best bunch of guys you could set your eyes on. It’s going to be a long road for us to pull back together.”
The casualties served as a grim reminder for soldiers who routinely leave the relative safety of Camp Striker and venture into the southwestern neighborhoods of the Iraqi capital, where there has been a recent flurry of insurgent activity.
“I think we’ve all come here to cheat death,” said Spc. William Parham, an Alpha Company gunner from Social Circle. “It’s a dangerous game cheating death.”
Sunday’s losses have been particularly hard for Alpha Company and other infantry soldiers who have had to continue their routine patrols of Baghdad.
“You just don’t know who’s friend and who’s foe out there,” said Parham, a Walton County sheriff’s deputy. “Those who were really close to those guys are in bad shape. Last night, I heard one of the guys hollering in anger. We want to avenge what’s happened.”
Sgt. John Miller, who works at Camp Striker’s combat stress clinic, said the men in the 2nd Battalion were a tight-knit group and have been vocal about their loss.
“They refer to one another as ‘brother,’ ” Miller said. “Their normal social support system has been taken away from them here. So all they have is each other.”
Thompson said Thomas was a physical fitness buff. Even after long, exhausting patrols, Thomas would return to Striker and take a run. Brunson was a “hard-charger,” Thompson said.
Kinlow, on the other hand, was so quiet that Thompson had to pry words out of him.
Then there was Fuller, the cutup of the bunch.
“The last couple of days I have not been able to get them out of my head and focus on our mission,” Thompson said.
At lunch on Sunday � the last meal the four soldiers had � Sgt. Bill Jones said he chatted with some of them about the perils of combat patrols in Baghdad.
“We talked about how we drive around until we get blown up,” said Jones, of Anderson, S.C.
Hours later, four of Jones’ friends were dead.
Tonight, Jones will stand with hundreds of other soldiers to remember them at the memorial service.
“I don’t think they’ll be the last,” said Parham, who was injured last month when his Humvee rolled over. “God, I hope I’m wrong.”
