Army Staff Sgt. Kendall Thomas

Died April 28, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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36, of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; assigned to Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; killed April 28 in a vehicle accident in Baghdad.

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Kendall Thomas wanted to make sure things were done right. He couldn't pass a piece of trash without picking it up and disposing of it properly, and he adhered to a strict military philosophy: "If there's a problem, fix it." "He made changes in my life by his actions and by the way he did things," said Jerome Scott, a fellow staff sergeant. "I will always remember him as a friend and as someone I could talk to." Thomas, a 36-year-old native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, died April 28 in Baghdad in a vehicle accident. He was based at Fort Hood, Texas. Thomas was in his 17th year of Army service. He met his wife, Staff Sgt. Pamela Thomas, in 1997 and they married five years later. "He was a soldier. But more important, he was a husband and a father," said Brig. Gen. Walter Zink. "And he was a volunteer in the Army at a time when volunteers are hard to find."

— Associated Press