Army Sgt. Charles A. Drier

Died May 24, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

28, of Tuscola, Mich.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 76th Field Artillery, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.; killed May 24 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee in Baghdad. Also killed were Spc. Dustin C. Fisher and Pfc. Jeffrey R. Wallace.

---

Michigan soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A soldier from Michigan who enlisted in the Army to give his life meaning and direction was killed this week by an explosion in Iraq, his mother said.

Sgt. Charles A. Drier, 28, who was serving as a sniper, was scheduled to return to Michigan on leave in July to give his mother away at her wedding, but was killed Tuesday, The Saginaw News reported.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense, which had not confirmed the death as of Thursday morning, declined to comment.

Mary Drier, of Tuscola County’s Columbia Township, learned of her son’s death while she was at work at the Tuscola County Advertiser, where she is a reporter. She said her son enlisted in March 2001.

“He felt like his life was going nowhere,” she said. “There’s nothing but dead-end jobs around here. He wanted his life to have a purpose, to have some meaning.”

People who knew her son in high school described him as generous and a natural leader. Drier was a 1995 graduate of Unionville-Sebewaing Area High School, located about 26 miles east of Bay City.

“He liked structure, discipline, tradition. He probably liked the Army because it was the same discipline he found in football,” said his former coach, Tim Travis, now the principal at Unionville-Sebewaing Area Middle School.

Drier is the 52nd member of the U.S armed forces with known Michigan ties to be killed in Iraq.