Army Cpl. Nathan C. Hubbard

Died August 22, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Clovis, Calif.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died Aug. 22 in Multaka, Iraq, of injuries sustained when his helicopter crashed. Also killed were Capt. Corry P. Tyler, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Paul J. Flynn, Sgt. Matthew L. Tallman, Spc. Rickey L. Bell, Capt. Derek A. Dobogai, Staff Sgt. Jason L. Paton, Sgt. Garrett I. McLead, Cpl. Jeremy P. Bouffard, Cpl. Phillip J. Brodnick, Cpl. Joshua S. Harmon, Spc. Michael A. Hook, Cpl. Jessy G. Pollard and Spc. Tyler R. Seideman.

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Clovis soldier among 14 killed in Iraq helicopter crash

The Associated Press

CLOVIS, Calif. — A Central California soldier was among 14 killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in northern Iraq — the second tragedy for his family, who lost another son to the war three years ago, family friends said.

The family of Spc. Nathan Hubbard, 21, was taking his death Aug. 22 “very, very hard,” said Clovis police spokeswoman Janet Stoll-Lee, who spoke on behalf of the Hubbards. The soldier’s father, Jeff Hubbard, is a retired 30-year veteran of the police department.

The Hubbards lost Nathan’s older brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, to a roadside bomb in downtown Ramadi in 2004. A third brother, Jason, will be returning home from Iraq to be with his family, Stoll-Lee said.

The UH-60 helicopter went down during a nighttime mission in the Tamim province that surrounds Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, a military spokesman in northern Iraq.

He said facts gathered indicated it was almost certainly due to a mechanical problem and not hostile fire, although the final cause remained under investigation. The military did not immediately release the soldiers’ identities pending notification of relatives.

Nathan Hubbard was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii, where officials said 10 of the soldiers killed in the crash were based.

Keith Butterfield, a family friend, said the Hubbards were worried for their sons but proud because they knew they were committed to going on behalf of their fallen brother.

“There is nothing anyone can say to make it better, but it’s good to know that there are other families that can help you cope,” said Butterfield, who became close to the Hubbards after his own son died in Iraq last year. “It’s bringing up the feelings of everyone else’s loss, but we will be there for them.”

Nathan and Jason Hubbard joined the Army together in 2005, shortly after their brother was killed. Their mother, Peggy, told the Fresno Bee in a 2005 interview that she believed Jason joined in part to protect Nathan after not being there to help Jared.

The brothers said at the time that they didn’t worry about dying in the war.

“People are going to be hurt, and people are going to be killed,” Nathan Hubbard told the Bee. “That is a reality you have to accept, but not dwell on.”

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California city grieves after family’s second son killed in Iraq

By Garance Burke

The Associated Press

CLOVIS, Calif. — As mourners prepared a candlelight vigil Aug. 27 to remember Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, his family’s searing tragedy brought the toll of war closer for residents of this central California city.

Hubbard, 21, died Aug. 22 when his Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Multaka, Iraq. The high school athlete had enlisted at age 19 while still grieving for his older brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Ramadi in 2004.

Monday, his parents made arrangements to receive his body and met funeral directors for the second time in three years, said Capt. Drew Bessinger, a family friend.

“The good news of the day is they know when the remains of their son are going to be delivered,” Bessinger said. “On the one hand, they have questions answered. But because he’s coming back, that presents a whole new set of traumas.”

The soldier’s remains were scheduled to arrive at Fresno-Yosemite Airport on Aug. 29, and funeral services were planned for Sept. 4.

In the meantime, neighbors and friends planned Monday’s simple candle lighting ceremony around a stone fountain built outside the family’s church to honor Jared Hubbard and his best friend, Marine Cpl. Jeremiah Baro, who died alongside him.

Managers at A Secret Garden, a Clovis flower shop, ordered hundreds of extra flowers in anticipation, and turned on a second walk-in cooler to hold arrangements of red roses, white carnations and blue delphinium.

“I just feel like we should be doing their weddings, not their funerals,” said manager Kimberly Woertendyke-Alvarez, who supplied the same wreaths for the elder brother’s services on Veterans Day 2004.

“Some people are saying they’ve changed their minds and they know that these boys need to come home.”

On Aug. 24, a third brother, Jason Hubbard, returned home from Iraq to be with his parents, Jeff and Peggy Hubbard, his wife and child and his sister. He resigned as a Fresno County sheriff’s deputy to join the Army when Nathan did and was assigned to the same unit as his brother, the 3rd Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, based on Oahu, Hawaii.

When the Black Hawk went down last week, Jason Hubbard was part of the crew assigned to search the wreckage, said Tim Rolen, pastor at the New Hope Community Church.

He has since been given orders not to redeploy to a hostile fire zone, Bessinger said.

The Department of Defense doesn’t collect statistics on the number of military personnel who ask to be removed from combat duty or are discharged from the military for compassionate reasons, a spokesman said.

But it was welcome news for Clovis, a city of 90,000 next to Fresno where seven men under the age of 25 have died in the Iraq war, said Mayor Bob Whalen.

“The fact that you’ve got the two brothers volunteering to carry on the work of their brother Jared touches people in a very meaningful way,” Whalen said. “No matter how much you put up those emotional defenses, there’s nothing that can prepare you for the loss of two of these three Hubbard boys.”

On Aug. 27, community leaders remembered Nathan Hubbard as a good-natured athlete who had an unwavering bond to his family.

Friends said his father, a 30-year veteran on the Clovis police force, taught him to live by the motto posted on his MySpace page: “Live, Love, Learn. Hope for the best, expect the worst.”

A message he posted before his death beneath a photo of the arm he tattooed with his brother’s initials, seemed almost an epitaph.

“As I take my last walk in your boots Guide me,” it read.

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Soldier laid to rest in Fresno; hundreds mourn family’s tragedy

By Garance Burke

The Associated Press

CLOVIS, Calif. — Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard’s parents laid their youngest son to rest Friday, praying his death in Iraq last week might offer him a heavenly reunion with his older brother, who died in combat nearly three years ago.

Hundreds of close friends, relatives and people simply touched by the family’s tragedy attended services at Hubbard’s graveside and stood sobbing in the heat as they remembered a young man cherished for his lighthearted approach to life.

Hubbard, 21, was one of 14 soldiers who died Aug. 22 when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed due to mechanical malfunction. His brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard, 22, was killed in 2004 by a roadside bomb in Ramadi.

On Friday, the family’s eldest, 33-year-old Army Spc. Jason Hubbard, stood in dress uniform between his younger brothers’ graves and released a dove into the air, a gesture a pastor said symbolized Nathan’s ascent skyward.

“We’re still numb from the first one and it’s like, ‘Oh, now there’s a second one,’ ” said Jason Hubbard, who was part of the team assigned to recover bodies from the crash site. “I’m just going through the paces to get through this.”

St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, where a priest performed funeral services in nearby Fresno, held so many mourners earlier Friday morning it was filled beyond its 1,400-seat capacity.

Afterward, the funeral procession to Clovis District Cemetery passed through miles of residential streets decorated with red, white and blue ribbons and lined with people waving American flags.

Nathan’s parents, Peggy and Jeff Hubbard, wanted their youngest son’s funeral held in the same parish where Jared’s life was honored on Veteran’s Day 2004, said a spokeswoman for the Clovis Police Department.

The program and the flowered wreaths were nearly identical as at Jared’s services. A portrait of Nathan in his green dress uniform sat on an easel behind his casket, near where his parents and older sister, Heidi, 31, sat while the same pastor gave a eulogy.

As a military officer presented them with a bronze star, Peggy Hubbard wiped away a tear.

“Nathan is experiencing a great reunion with Jared and all those who went before him,” said the Rev. Perry Kavookjian from the dais. “Peace has come to them.”

Despite the family’s unimaginable loss, friends who knew the soldier for his sense of humor injected the service with moments of levity.

Michael Aboujaoude, 22, who met Nathan Hubbard in first grade, drew chuckles from the crowd as he performed a song he wrote to honor his friend’s ability to live life at his own pace.

“No one knows what you’ll do next. You won’t stop till you reach the crest,” Aboujaoude sang, intoning the soldier’s name. “[Nathan’s] still very much alive in the rafters of this cosmos, looking down on the funeral.”

The crowd grew silent, though, as pallbearers escorted Nathan’s flag-draped casket to rest at Clovis District Cemetery, just inches from his brother’s grave. The honor guard gave a 21-gun salute, a bagpiper played “Taps” and a military officer gave Nathan’s mother the flag that had covered her son’s casket.

Then, doves flew into the air, their bodies faintly outlined by the Sierra Nevada range.

Robin Davidson, a Clovis mother who lost her son in the war four months ago, said she attended the graveside services hoping to offer the family some solace. Her son, Army Sgt. Steven M. Packer, 23, of Clovis, died when his patrol encountered a makeshift bomb in Rushdi Mullah, Iraq.

“The families need our support,” she said in a low voice. “We’re still going through it. We still haven’t begun to go through it.”