Army Pfc. Jerrick M. Petty

Died December 10, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Idaho Falls, Idaho; assigned to Company B, 3rd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed while guarding a gas station Dec. 10 when his position was attacked by enemy forces in Mosul, Iraq.

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Pfc. Jerrick Petty made it his mission to look out for others. When he was 10 years old, his father remembers, he beat up neighborhood bullies who were picking on other children. In high school, he screened his little sisters’ suitors to make sure they were good people.

Petty was working in construction and at a McDonald’s in Idaho Falls, Idaho, but joined the Army to earn more money to support his young family. On Dec. 10, the 25-year-old soldier was killed by hostile fire while guarding a gas station in Mosul, Iraq.

He is survived by his wife, Tiffany, daughter, Azure Dawn, 2, and son, Jerrick McKen II.

“The last thing he said to me was, ‘I love you, Dad,’” said his father, Jerald Petty. “And the last thing I said to him was, ‘I love you, son.’”

— Associated Press