Army Spc. Ahmed A. Cason

Died April 4, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of McCalla, Ala.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; killed April 4 when his unit was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire in Baghdad.

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Spc. Ahmed Akil Cason grew up in a military family, and like most any military kid, he moved around a lot. His early years were spent at Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Benning, Ga., and then he stayed with grandparents in Arkansas because of Desert Storm more than a decade ago. He finished high school in Alabama and lived his last weeks in Iraq. Cason, 24, of McCalla, Ala., was among eight soldiers killed April 4 while traveling as part of a convoy bound for Sadr City, Baghdad's largest Shiite neighborhood. Cedric K. Hunt Sr. said he last talked to his son about three weeks earlier, on the day the soldier left for Iraq. "He was fearful, but I don't think that's anything unusual," Hunt said. Hunt would know. He and Cason's mother are both retired from the Army. One of Cason's brothers is in the Air Force and another went to Baghdad with the Army. Cason had started a family of his own, marrying a woman he met while working in a Job Corps program. He and Allison Cason had a 3-year-old daughter, Akilaah, and 10-month-old son, Gabriel.

— Associated Press