Army Pfc. Curtis L. Wooten III

Died January 4, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Spanaway, Wash.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; killed Jan. 4 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Balad, Iraq.

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Spanaway soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

SPANAWAY, Wash. — When Pfc. Curtis L. Wooten came home before Christmas to surprise his mother for her birthday, his other present was to tell her that his tour in Iraq would end in February.

His mother, Dairyene, later learned her 20-year-old son had been killed in Iraq and his would be a gift she’d never receive.

“I feel so hollow inside,” she said after learning that her son had been killed Jan. 4 in Balad, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle.

The soldier was a tank gunner assigned to 1st Battalion, 77th Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, based out of Schweinfurt, Germany.

Wooten, whose parents both served in the Army, was born at Fort Riley, Kan., and lived around the world before his parents divorced. At 10, he and his younger brother moved to Spanaway to live with their mother.

After he graduated from Spanaway Lake High School in 2002, Wooten enlisted in the Army to get health insurance and money for college, his mother said.

His father, Curtis Wooten Sr., a 12-year Army veteran who lives in Junction City, Kan., served in the first Persian Gulf War. He advised his son before he left for Iraq to be alert.

“You need to be somewhat scared,” Wooten Sr. remembered telling his son. “That keeps you aware. That keeps you alive.”

Wooten said he and his son were close. The slain soldier spent his first 10 years growing up with his father and the two frequently sent e-mails to each other during his time in Iraq.

“I feel pride in his service because he followed what I did, but it sucks that it ends this way,” Wooten said.

Wooten is the second soldier with connections to Washington state to die in Iraq this past week. Pvt. Cory Depew, 21, was killed Jan. 4 in Tal Afar.

Friends remembered Wooten as someone who listened, made them smile and loved to dance.

Michael Parker, who has known Wooten since the 7th grade, picked his friend up from the airport when he came home on leave in December. He said Wooten was happy to be home, away from the war.

“He told me, ‘They got me over here killing people I don’t know,”’ Parker said. “He didn’t like that part ... that he always had to be paranoid, on guard, seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”

Once Wooten’s enlistment was up this summer, Parker said they were going to go to Miami where they planned to go back to school and find work.

In addition to his parents, Wooten is survived by a brother, sister, half-brother and half-sister.