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- The People Behind The Sacrifice
Army Pfc. Jay-D H. Ornsby-Adkins
Died April 28, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom
21, of Lone, Calif.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Ga.; died April 28 in Salman Pak, Iraq, of wounds suffered when his vehicle was struck with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire during combat operations. Also killed were Sgt. Glenn D. Hicks Jr. and Pvt. Cole E. Spencer.
Ione, Calif., soldier latest casualty of Iraq war
The Associated Press
IONE, Calif. — Everyone seemed to know, or know of, Jay-D Ornsby-Adkins in this town of about 3,000.
An indication of that came in the hundreds of bouquets, handwritten cards, photographs, flags and other tokens that quickly piled up in the window, sidewalk and planter box at his mother’s beauty salon when word came that the Army private had been killed in Iraq.
Hundreds of people also showed up for a candlelight vigil outside the salon May 1. Robyn Ornsby told the crowd that she brought her son to the U.S. from Australia when he was 5.
He wasn’t born an American, but he died as one, she said.
“He did this with a lot of admiration and love for this country,” Ornsby said.
Ornsby-Adkins, 21, died April 28 in Salman Pak, Iraq, when a bomb went off near his Humvee and gunfire erupted. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Benning, Ga.
The Department of Defense announced his death May 1, along with the deaths of two other soldiers.
Ornsby-Adkins is the first soldier from Ione to die in Iraq, Mayor Jerry Sherman said. The City Council devoted part of its May 1 meeting to a discussion about how to commemorate the sacrifice of Ornsby-Adkins and other local soldiers from the town, which about 40 miles northeast of Stockton.
Councilman Jeff Barnhart noted that several other young men and women from the area also are serving in Iraq. His own son, Brad Ferguson Barnhart, 20, a friend of Ornsby-Adkins’, will leave soon for Army basic training, he said.
Ornsby-Adkins also is survived by his wife of five months, Ashley Ornsby-Adkins.