Army Sgt. 1st Class Glen J. Whetten

Died March 12, 2010 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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31, of Mesa, Ariz.; assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.; died March 12 near Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.

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Soldier remembered as movie buff who loved his job

The Associated Press

Glen “Jake” Whetten was such a big fan of cinema, especially war movies, that he could communicate with his brother using popular movie lines.

“He wasn’t critical of them but liked reality over bravado,” said Whetten’s older brother, Jed. “You could never beat him at movie trivia because he knew everything. He knew all the lines.”

On March 12, the 31-year-old soldier from Mesa, Ariz., was killed near Kandahar, Afghanistan, when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. He was assigned to Fort Riley.

Whetten enlisted in the Army in 1996, the same year he graduated from South Mountain High School in Phoenix.

Jed Whetten told the East Valley Tribune in Mesa that before his brother deployed to Afghanistan, he served a year in Iraq when the war started in 2003.

“He was very patriotic, and he translated that to other soldiers when it came to educating them on the importance of their jobs,” Jed Whetten said. “If there’s any consolation in this, he died doing what he loved.”

The youngest of four children, Glen Whetten is survived by his mother, Amy Whetten of Mesa; brother, Jed; sisters Melinda Pink and Julie Lee; 11-year-old daughter, Arianna; and fiancee, Megan Hughes.