Army Sgt. David J. Murray

Died June 9, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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23, of Clinton, La.; assigned to the 1088th Engineering Battalion, Louisiana Army National Guard, New Roads, La.; killed June 9 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his military vehicle in Baghdad.

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Slain soldier’s body arrives in Baton Rouge

Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — Family and military members gathered on the runway at the Baton Rouge airport to meet the casket of an East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s deputy and National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.

Law enforcement officers formed a processional to escort the hearse carrying Sgt. David Joseph Murray, 23, who died June 9 when a bomb exploded under his armored personnel carrier in Baghdad. Murray was a member of B Company, 1088th Engineering Battalion, 256th Brigade Combat Team.

Murray was also an East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s deputy and worked part time as a sergeant for the Norwood Police Department. Norwood Assistant Police Chief Ray Chamberlian waited as the sun went down for the plane to arrive Thursday evening. He recalled a young man who was a natural at law enforcement.

“He had it,” Chamberlian said. “He would have been a lieutenant when he came back.”

Chamberlian was one of dozens of local law enforcement officers who gathered to form a processional of cars and motorcycles for Murray. Some, like Chamberlian, knew him. Others, like Baton Rouge Police Officer Brian Harrison, came simply out of respect.

A motorcycle officer, Harrison said news of another Louisiana soldier’s death is hard to take.

“They’re just kids. Just kids,” he said.

After moving from Pennsylvania to Louisiana in 1997, Murray joined the National Guard while he was a junior at Silliman Institute. He attended boot camp after he graduated from high school in 2001.

He lived in the Felixville community, north of Clinton, and was a native of Philadelphia. He is survived by his mother and stepfather, Joanne Spence and John Parker; father, Gary Murray Sr. of Philadelphia; sister, Caitlin Marie Parker of Clinton; two brothers, Gary Michael Murray and Coley Patrick Parker, both of Clinton; and a grandmother, Patricia Lepera of Jeffersonville, Pa.

Murray will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.