Army Spc. Jerry L. Ganey Jr.

Died August 3, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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29, of Folkston, Ga.; assigned to the 648th Engineer Battalion, 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard, Statesboro, Ga.; killed Aug. 3 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his armored personnel carrier as he was conducting a dismounted security patrol in Baghdad. Also killed were Spc. Mathew V. Gibbs and Sgt. 1st Class Charles H. Warren.

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Soldier killed in Iraq explosion

The Associated Press

Army Spc. Jerry L. Ganey Jr. There was no mistaking Jerry L. Ganey Jr. for anything but a tough guy. He’d played football in high school and enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduation. He loved guns, fighting and women.

“He’d fight at the drop of a hat,” his aunt, Phyllis Haddock.

“He was the type of guy, if he saw a gentleman or young man disrespect a lady, he would put that young man in their place.”

Ganey Jr., 29, of Folkston, Ga., died Aug. 3 when a bomb exploded near his vehicle in Baghdad. He was assigned to Statesboro.

Standing about 6-feet-2 and tipping the scales at 240 pounds, Ganey had a healthy appetite and a habit of charming his way to the Sunday dinner tables of family and friends.

“He’d call Sunday ‘Fat Day,”’ Haddock said. “He’d go around to all the people who cooked and then he’d eat. He would go to two or three houses sometimes. Wherever Lewie went, he was welcome.”

In December he had secretly married his sweetheart, Debbie. Ganey became stepfather to Jay Michael, 14, with whom he roughhoused for hours and went four-wheeling. Debra became stepmom to Vanessa Elizabeth, 6.