Army Pfc. Kerry D. Scott

Died October 6, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

21, of Mount Vernon, Wash.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.; killed Oct. 6 in Iskandariyah, Iraq, when his convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device.

---

Dozens attend funeral for soldier slain in Iraq

Associated Press

CONCRETE, Wash. — Relatives and friends of a soldier who died pursuing his dream in Iraq held U.S. flags along Washington 20 leading into town before his funeral.

About 100 people attended the burial Tuesday of Pfc. Kerry D. Scott, 21, at Forest Park Cemetery on the western edge of this town where he grew up in the foothills of the Cascades about 90 miles north-northeast of Seattle.

His casket was carried from a white hearse by six members of the 10th Mountain Division honor guard from Fort Drum, N.Y., past 18 leather-jacketed representatives of Combat Veterans International who stood at attention and saluted.

Scott had been with the division in Iraq six weeks when a homemade bomb struck his convoy Oct. 6 at Iskandariyah. He was the fourth soldier from Washington state to be killed in Iraq.

From boyhood he had always wanted to be a soldier, relatives said, and he enlisted in the Army before finishing high school.

Family members said he hoped someday to become a radiologist.

---

Soldier died pursuing his dream

CONCRETE, Wash. — Kerry Scott always wanted to be a soldier.

Growing up in this northwest Washington town, he played with toy swords and knives. When he was older, he took up pistols and rifles.

On Oct. 14, he received a soldier’s burial.

Pfc. Scott, 21, was killed in Iskandariyah, Iraq, Oct. 6 when a homemade bomb struck his convoy. His family received word when a chaplain and a sergeant arrived at the door of their home here overlooking Skagit Valley pastureland.

“He was brave. He was a hero. He always wanted to help people,” said his father, David Scott, fighting back tears.

Kerry Scott had been in Iraq just a month, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Drum, N.Y.

The last time his father heard from him was two weeks ago, when he called just to say he was OK.

The soldier’s large family gathered around the kitchen table Oct. 10 to remember the young man who was committed to serving his country — and a little scared about duty in Iraq.

“Who wouldn’t be?” said Linda Ables, mother of his step-mom. Ables had just flown in from Tennessee.

“People forget we still have all these young men and women over there, working and dying, and giving their lives under the most unbelievable circumstances,” she said.

Kerry Scott enlisted in the Army before he even finished high school in Concrete, where his mother, Paula Hartzell, had a brief stint as city planner. He was mostly home-schooled, attending classes part time at the high school and than moving on to an alternative school.

“He was a nontraditional, free-thinking kid,” said school counselor Bill Krause, who used to spend time shooting assault rifles at an old quarry with Scott when he was still in his teens.

“He liked anything tough, anything that challenged him,” said Scott’s younger brother, Corey Sullivan, 18.

Scott loved to climb and hike in the Cascades. His favorite book was “How to Stay Alive in the Woods.” He liked to load his backpack and pockets with rocks when he hiked, to test his strength and endurance, and he hoped to one day hike the Pacific Crest Trail.

“He called to tell me how strong he was after the last few weeks of Army training,” said his father. “He was packing some muscle.”

Family members said the young soldier, who was home on leave in June after being stationed in Korea, hoped one day to be a radiologist.

“There was so much more he could have done,” his father said.

Private graveside services, with full military honors, were held at Forest Park Cemetery in Concrete.

— Associated Press