Army Pfc. George R. Geer

Died January 17, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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27, of Cortez, Colo.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea; killed Jan. 17 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his position in Ramadi, Iraq. Also killed was Army Staff Sgt. Thomas E. Vitagliano.

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Soldier from Cortez killed in Iraq

Associated Press

CORTEZ, Colo. — Pfc. George Geer joined a family tradition stretching to the Revolutionary War when he joined the Army at the age of 25, just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, his father said.

Geer, 27, was killed by a bomb in Iraq on Monday while inspecting a suspicious vehicle, said his father, Harold Geer.

The last time the soldier talked to his family Saturday, he wanted to hear about the snow in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, his family said. He loved to ski, travel, ride horses, hunt elk, and race cars and motorcycles.

He had been scheduled to come home for a leave in February.

Geer was survived by his father; his older sister, Hope; and his mother, Lois. A brother, Chad, died in a car accident in 1989 at age 19.

“I kept thinking George will be all right because I couldn’t go through this twice,” Harold Geer said.

The younger Geer served a year in Korea and went to Iraq in July 2004. He was stationed in Ramadi, where he was a gunner with the 503rd Airborne Infantry. His whole unit was to redeploy to Fort Carson near Colorado Springs in August.

“There’s been Geers in the military every generation since the Revolutionary War. George believed in his country and what he was doing,” Harold Geer said.

The soldier, who was about 12 when his family moved from Michigan to southwestern Colorado, graduated from Dolores High School, where he participated in wrestling, baseball, football and track.

“He was always mature, even at age 12,” Harold said. “He was easygoing and friendly. He knew everybody. He looked out for the underdog. He was afraid of nobody. He lived in a black and white world. What was right was right. Wrong was wrong.

“I’m prejudiced as hell, but he was special.”

Friend Clark Peterson, a former Army infantryman, said George Geer had talked about how frustrating it was in Iraq.

“He said you don’t die in combat when you engage enemies, you die when you don’t expect it,” said Peterson, 29. “He died too young, and he wasn’t fighting the enemy when it happened. ... They took him off his guard. Now, he doesn’t have a chance to live the rest of his life.”

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Colorado Senate pauses to remember soldier killed in Iraq

DENVER — The Colorado Senate paused for a moment of silence Wednesday to honor a Cortez soldier who was killed in Iraq by a bomb.

“Some families are bearing the cost of war more than others,” Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, said.

Pfc. George Geer, 27, was killed Monday when he was inspecting a suspicious vehicle, said his father, Harold Geer.

When he last talked to his family on Saturday, the soldier wanted to hear about the snow in the mountains of southwestern Colorado, his family said. He loved to ski, travel, ride horses, hunt elk, and race cars and motorcycles.

He had been scheduled to come home for a leave in February.

Geer served a year in Korea and went to Iraq in July 2004. He was stationed at Ramadi, where he was a gunner with the 503rd Airborne Infantry. His whole unit was to shift its home post from Korea to Fort Carson near Colorado Springs in August.

— Associated Press