Army Pfc. Casey S. Carriker

Died June 13, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Hoquiam, Wash.; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died June 13 in Kirkuk, Iraq, of injuries sustained in a non-combat-related incident. His death is under investigation.

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Family remembers soldier who died in Iraq

The Associated Press

Army Pfc. Casey S. Carriker was one to question everything, which could get him into trouble sometimes. He was interested in philosophy, ethics, human behavior and how people think and feel.

“The world came at him from a different angle,” said his father, Terry. “He had an abstract personality. Things didn’t hit him the same way. He had a way of looking at a situation and seeing something totally different than what other people got out of it.”

Carriker, 20, of Hoquiam, Wash., died June 13 in Kirkuk, Iraq, in a non-combat-related incident. He was a 2005 high school graduate and was assigned to Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Carriker always had a book with him as he walked through the halls at school — be it a novel or a book on philosophy.

He signed up right around his 18th birthday and, while always an avid runner, he started to run every day with his backpack full of books to prepare for basic training. Half of it was filled with school books, the other with “whatever bizarre subject he was interested in,” Terry Carriker said.

He also is survived by his mother, Sandra Beaudry, and stepmother, Pammy Carriker.