Army Pfc. Gregory P. Huxley Jr.

Died April 6, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Forestport, N.Y.,; assigned to B Company, 3rd Battalion, 17th Engineer Battalion, Fort Benning, Ga.; killed in action in Iraq.

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A tabletop memorial in the hallway at Central Adirondack High School in Boonville, N.Y., honors Gregory Huxley Jr., killed by enemy fire April 6 in Iraq.

Among the mementos: A prom photo, Huxley’s graduation picture and duct tape.

“The students say Greg always said you could fix anything with duct tape,” said Principal Frederick Morgan. “He did not own a pair of shoes without some sort of duct tape on them,” said friend Erica Merlo, 17, Huxley’s prom date last year.

Huxley, 19, a native of nearby Forestport, N.Y., enlisted in the Army last summer. His last visit home was at Thanksgiving. By December, his unit was on its way to Kuwait.

Merlo said she’ll always picture Huxley strolling confidently into school, Yankees cap worn backwards, CD player blasting the heavy-metal bands Slipknot and Disturbed into headphones.

“I keep thinking I’m going to wake up, and it’s going to be a dream,” she said. “He was like a big brother to me.”

Huxley’s younger sister, Rebecca, is a junior at Central Adirondack. Another sister, Nicole, and a brother, Bernard, also graduated from the school.

Their grieving father, Gregory Huxley Sr., asked for continued support for the troops in Iraq. “Just because we lost (Gregory) doesn’t mean it’s over,” he told The Observer-Dispatch of Utica, N.Y.

Merlo got a letter from the soldier a few weeks ago. “He said he wanted to make us proud. We never got the chance to tell him that we already were — that just by joining the Army, he made us proud.”

— USA Today and The Associated Press