Army Pfc. Cody J. Eggleston

Died October 24, 2008 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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21, of Eugene, Ore.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, Alaska; died Oct. 24 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., of wounds sustained Oct. 16 in Baqubah, Iraq, when he received indirect fire.

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War in Iraq claims Eugene soldier

The Associated Press

EUGENE, Ore. — A soldier from Eugene has died from wounds he suffered in Iraq this month.

Pfc. Cody J. Eggleston died Friday at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland. The 21-year-old had been injured by indirect fire on Oct. 16 in Baqubah, the Department of Defense said.

Eggleston joined the Army in July 2007, not long after his graduation from North Eugene Alternative High School, and was an infantryman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

He is the second fatality from the attack on Oct. 16. Pfc. Heath Pickard of Texas died on the day of it.

Eggleston died with his wife, Karie, by his side, according to WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, S.C. He and Karie, who is from western North Carolina, were married in June in Alaska.

“They were very much looking forward to taking a honeymoon,” family spokeswoman Alyse Aiken said in a statement to the television station. “Cody was amazing with Karie’s 6-year-old daughter, Raegan. I remember spending the day with them the weekend after their reception, and I was blown away at how good he was with her.”

Eggleston’s body is to be flown to Redmond on Wednesday.

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Pfc. chose infantry to ‘stand up for what I believe’

The Associated Press

Cody J. Eggleston had a knack for seeing the bright side and sharing his upbeat perspective, said friend Kaitlyn Kite.

“If I was stressing over school, he would be able to put it in a different light and I’d feel better,” she said.

Eggleston, 21, of Eugene, Ore., died Oct. 24 of wounds suffered Oct. 16 in Baqubah. He was a 2007 high school graduate and was assigned to Fort Wainwright.

Though Eggleston scored highly in Army aptitude tests, he volunteered for the infantry. According to Chaplain Vern Arledge, “He said, ‘Dad, I want to be on the front lines. I want to be out there to protect my friends and stand up for what I believe.’” He was a film buff, enjoying movies from kid films to action adventures. “He loved old Westerns. He could say the lines of some of them, he’d watched them so many times,” said half-sister Trina Jackson.

He is survived by his wife, Karie, and stepdaughter Raegen.

Days before he was mortally wounded, he e-mailed his new wife.

“Baby, I miss you so much,” he wrote. “It sucks, not being able to fall asleep with you on the line, not being able to talk to you for several hours every day. It just destroys me inside.”