Army Sgt. Timothy R. Boyce

Died December 15, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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29, of North Salt Lake, Utah; assigned to the Maintenance Troop, Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Dec. 15 of a non-combat-related illness at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany.

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Utah soldier dies of aneurysm

Associated Press

FARMINGTON, Utah — During his last visit home, Sgt. Timothy R. Boyce suffered from headaches his family now realizes were harbingers of a fatal aneurysm in his brain.

Boyce, 29, had been complaining about terrible headaches for weeks, his wife, Sharon Boyce, said.

He collapsed just after 5 a.m. Wednesday during physical training at Camp Tiger in northern Iraq, his father, Rick Boyce, said.

“It was just like a time bomb in his head,” his father said of the growing aneurysm that doctors said had been there since birth.

Boyce was rushed to Landstuhl, Germany, and was kept on life support until his brother, Brad, could fly to Germany from Kuwait to be with him during his last moments.

He was a registered organ donor, and doctors were able to harvest his lungs, heart, liver, kidneys and corneas.

“The German doctor said it was the cleanest liver he’d ever seen,” Rick Boyce said of the organ of his son, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which proscribes alcohol and tobacco use.

Tim and Sharon married after he returned from a Mormon mission. After the birth of their first child, Ammon, Tim enlisted in the Army in 2001 — just two weeks before the 9-11 attacks.

He was assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry’s Maintenance Troop, Support Squadron, based at Fort Carson, Colo., where he worked on computer systems on Bradley fighting vehicles.

When Sharon was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Tim’s job meant free health care and the opportunity for temporary work for him in a Salt Lake City recruiting station as she underwent chemotherapy.

“He always took care of me,” Sharon now says of her late husband. “He was so amazing. I was very blessed to have him for eight years.”

When he left for his first tour in Iraq, Sharon recalled, she was still extremely weak from the cancer treatment.

“I couldn’t even lift my son to put him in his high chair,” she said.

Tim’s service in the Army was to expire earlier this year, but the Army retained him and sent him back for a second tour.

He missed the birth of his daughter, Gracelynn, but his last leave gave him three weeks to spend with his wife and children.

He had been back in Iraq for less than two months, when he collapsed last week.

Because he stricken in a war zone, his family will receive additional insurance and educational benefits.