Army Spc. Thomas A. Foley III

Died April 14, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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23, of Dresden, Tenn.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed when a grenade exploded inside his Humvee in Iraq.

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Thomas Foley was a son of Tennessee. He was also a husband and the father of a 6-month-old boy.

Foley, 23, was killed April 14 near Baghdad in a grenade explosion that also took the life of Pfc. John Brown and injured two other service members. The incident is under investigation.

Foley was from Dresden, a small rural town in the northwest corner of Tennessee. Like so many young men and women with dreams but not much money, he saw the military as an opportunity.

When he graduated from Dresden High School in 1999, Foley wanted to be a schoolteacher. But he couldn’t afford college tuition, so he turned toward the Army, as did his younger brother, David, who is also in Iraq.

Foley signed up in June 1999 and was later based at Fort Campbell in Kentucky as a weapons specialist with the 101st Airborne Division.

He was remembered as energetic and kind by his family, someone who enjoyed life and was a good Christian. He and his wife, Paulette, were married for less than two years and had one child, relatives said.

— Associated Press