Army Sgt. Jamal M. Rhett

Died August 15, 2010 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of Palmyra, N.J.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; died Aug. 15 in Baqubah, Iraq, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his vehicle with grenades.

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Medic remembered as ‘knight in shining armor’

The Associated Press

During Spc. Jamal Rhett’s deployments in Iraq, the care packages from home came frequently and full of Tastykakes and wet wipes.

“The ones with the chocolate icing with vanilla stripes were his favorite,” said his aunt, Sonya Winters. The wipes were to keep clean in the desert.

“He was a very clean person,” Miller said.

Rhett, 24, of Palmyra, N.J., died Aug. 15 in Baqubah, Iraq, when his vehicle came under an insurgent grenade attack. He was a combat medic assigned to Schofield Barracks.

Rhett graduated from the Burlington County Institute of Technology in 2003 and spent a year at Bloomfield College before enlisting in the Army. He had intended to attend medical school.

“He was a good citizen, a positive member of our school community,” said BCIT superintendent Dolores Szymanski. “He participated in freshman basketball and was a very respectful young man with a really positive attitude.”

“He was my knight in shining armor,” said his mother, Michelle Watson. “I not only loved him as a son, but I liked him.”

During their last conversation, Rhett told his mother that he was close to earning a promotion to sergeant.