Army Spc. Eric T. Burri

Died June 7, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Wyoming, Mich.; assigned to the 623rd Quartermaster Company, 1st Corps Support Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed June 7 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Baghdad.

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Michigan soldier killed in Iraq longed to travel

Associated Press

WYOMING, Mich. — A soldier from suburban Grand Rapids who a family friend says had a longing for opportunities to travel was killed in Iraq when a primitive bomb exploded near his vehicle.

Spc. Eric T. Burri, 21, of Wyoming, died Tuesday in Baghdad, the Department of Defense announced Thursday. He was assigned to the 623rd Quartermaster Company, 1st Corps Support Command, based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Virginia Burri told Grand Rapids radio station WOOD-AM that her grandson joined the Army after graduating from Kelloggsville High School. Flags at the school flew at half-staff as word of his death spread in the area.

Woody Watson, a close family friend, said the Army was Burri’s ticket to travel. His drive was sparked by a year Burri spent in Uruguay as an exchange student while in high school, Watson said.

Watson said Burri wanted to learn languages and meet different people.

“We’re sad. We’re hurt,” Watson told The Detroit News. “He was brave to go and fight for freedom — not only for his country, but for others around the world.”

Engaged to marry a 21-year-old Saginaw woman, he was home a couple of weeks ago to attend an uncle’s funeral, his grandmother said. Burri also is survived by his parents, Joanne and John, and an older brother, Andrew.

While overseas, Burri leaned on his trust in God, Watson said.

In an e-mail to his family, he wrote: “I know that all of you will keep me in your prayers and thoughts and also God will be watching my back.”

Burri had been looking forward to returning from his tour of duty in Iraq, said family friend Bruce Sova of Wyoming.

“He wanted to get back, get it done, because he was due to come back in October,” Sova told the Detroit Free Press. “He just wanted to start his life.”

Burri was the 53rd member of the U.S. armed forces with known Michigan ties to be killed in Iraq.

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Iraq building named after fallen Michigan soldier

The Associated Press

WYOMING, Mich. — A military building in Iraq has been renamed after a fallen soldier from the Grand Rapids area.

The 824th Quartermaster Company held a dedication ceremony Thursday, on the seventh anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, renaming building number 8124 on Joint Base Balad the Eric Burri Rigging Facility.

The base, informally known as Camp Anaconda, is one of the largest U.S. military installations in Iraq.

The Army specialist, who was from the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming, was killed in June 2005 in Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated near the vehicle in which he was riding. Burri, who was 21 when he died, was assigned to the 623rd Quartermaster Company, 1st Corps Support Command in Fort Bragg, N.C.

The building’s new name commemorates the work he did as a parachute rigger at the base where he would pack parachutes used on military equipment drops.

“It’s pretty cool his memory is living on,” said John Burri, the soldier’s father.

“We were told he was only the second parachute rigger killed since World War II,” he told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids on Thursday.

Eric Burri’s mother, Joanne Burri, said her son, a 2003 graduate of Kelloggsville High School, was touched by the poverty he witnessed and, especially, the faces of the Iraqi children he saw on the street. She recalled that he had written home and said, “‘Mom, if I could, I would give them the shoes off my feet.”’

For the Burris, the fact that his name is on a building in Iraq is a reminder that the sacrifice of soldiers such as their son has not been in vain.

“Some day, I would love to be able to go there and tour the land that he fought for and see this,” John Burri told The Grand Rapids Press. “We are just amazed that they think so much of him that they want to do this for him.”