Army Pfc. Vorn J. Mack

Died August 23, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Orangeburg, S.C.; assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; died on Aug. 23 near the Hadithah Dam, west of Ramadi, Iraq. Mack jumped into the Euphrates River to take a swim and did not resurface. A search party found his body downstream on Aug. 24.

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Pfc. Vorn J. Mack was roughly 5-foot-3 and 115 pounds when Sgt. Andre Boler saw him for the first time at Fort Carson in March.

“I thought he was someone’s little brother, he was so young and little,” Boler said. But that made no difference: “He was a great soldier.”

Mack would often cheer up soldiers with a cigarette or a story, Boler said.

The 19-year-old Mack drowned Aug. 23 near the Hadithah Dam in Iraq. The computer analyst was from Orangeburg, S.C. Mack began basic training a month after graduation from high school in 2002, his aunt, Brinder Hicks, said. He was one of five children, and one sister is in the Army in Kuwait.

“He was a little man with a big heart,” Hicks said.

— Associated Press