Army Spc. Alan E. McPeek

Died February 2, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Tucson, Ariz.; assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Giessen, Germany; died Feb. 2 in Ramadi, Iraq, of injuries sustained when he came in contact with enemy forces using small arms fire. Also killed was Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer.

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Soldier and replacement die fighting together

By Michelle Tan

Staff writer

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq — Spc. Alan Eugene McPeek was just days away from completing his 14-month tour in Iraq. Pvt. Matthew Thomas Zeimer had been at Combat Outpost Grant for less than two hours.

Close to 1 a.m. Friday, on what was supposed to be his last night at Combat Outpost Grant in central Ramadi, McPeek and his fellow soldiers came under attack. It was an intense and coordinated attack launched by insurgents from nearby buildings and streets.

McPeek, 20, and Zeimer, 18, ran together to the roof to fight back.

McPeek took Zeimer, a member of the 3rd Infantry Division unit set to replace the outgoing soldiers, under his wing. He coached him and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the young private as they fought for their lives.

But a shot fired from what commanders believe was a recoilless rifle blasted through the reinforced concrete wall near McPeek and Zeimer. The impact killed them both.

McPeek, with Company A, 16th Engineer Battalion, was attached to Task Force 1-37 Armor while he was in Iraq. Zeimer belonged to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor.

On Tuesday, more than 350 soldiers gathered in the dining facility on Camp Ramadi to honor the two young men, one a veteran of combat, the other a young soldier fresh from training. Both fought fiercely until the end.

“Whenever we lose someone we love, it hurts,” Chaplain Nathan Kline, of 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor, said during the 40-minute service. “Our instincts tell us to avoid suffering and discomfort, but avoiding and repressing painful thoughts can be selfish. Our brothers deserve to be missed. We cannot honor them without remembering them. Remembering the fallen is a sacred duty none of us can afford to shirk.”

The dining facility where the service took place was transformed from a typically noisy, messy place into a quiet, sacred hall set aside to honor the two soldiers.

Two helmets placed over two rifles, accompanied by two pairs of combat boots, sat on an altar in the front. The soldiers’ Bronze Star and Purple Heart medals flanked each rifle.

Their photos, images frozen in time, smiled down on the soldiers who had gathered to grieve their loss as music written by a soldier from the 1-37 floated from loudspeakers.

A recording of the service and taped messages from the soldiers who knew McPeek and Zeimer will be sent to their families.

Lt. Col. Michael Silverman, commander of 3-69, spoke about Zeimer’s dedication to his country and how important he was to his fellow soldiers.

“The time came to enter the world of war [and] he fought for his nation, his Army, his buddies,” Silverman said. “He fought like a veteran. What we are all asked to do is answer the call to arms with the same courage and tenacity as Matthew.”

Zeimer, who joined the Army on June 13, 2006, was proud to be a soldier, and he was determined, helpful and kind, said Spc. David Seth, one of Zeimer’s close friends. He often talked about his family and his fianc©e, and how much he looked forward to being reunited with them.

“Matthew wasn’t interested in being a hero,” Seth said. “Being a soldier was good enough for him.”

McPeek, who enlisted on June 30, 2004, was a natural leader, a warrior and a skilled sapper, said Lt. Col. V.J. Tedesco III, commander of the 1-37, a unit also known as the Bandits.

“His final act of professionalism as a soldier placed him in the line of fire,” Tedesco said. “It breaks my heart. I will never understand why God chose to call Specialist McPeek home on his last day of service in Iraq. [But] the Bandits do not fail those with whom they serve, and we will not fail Specialist Alan McPeek.”

Spc. Solomon McCabe, one of McPeek’s best friends, said his buddy always knew how to keep his fellow soldiers motivated.

“No matter how difficult the missions, McPeek was always there to lighten the mood and get us through those tight spaces,” McCabe said. “Specialist McPeek, we will always miss and love you. You’re in our hearts and we’ll never forget you.”

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Soldier is 3rd from graduating class to die in Iraq

By Blake Morlock

Tucson Citizen

The Tucson area lost another soldier — another Mountain View High School 2004 graduate — during weekend fighting in Iraq.

Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, died Friday of injuries from small-arms fire during a battle in Ramadi, Iraq, a Department of Defense release said. Ramadi is in Anbar province, about 100 miles west of Baghdad, where Sunnis hostile to U.S. forces have holed up for three years.

McPeek had been scheduled to leave Iraq, but his unit, the 1st Armored Division, was kept there after Ramadi came under attack by insurgents.

A posting from McPeek’s father on his son’s MySpace page thanked friends for their condolences. His father could not be reached for comment.

“You all are the reason he so wanted to get the hell out of Iraq,” the posting said. “Most of you know that he had already served his required time there and should have been safe in Germany when this happened.”

Fellow Mountain View grad Michael Travers knew McPeek throughout high school and kept in touch with him. Travers called McPeek a “great guy with a really good heart and good spirit.”

“He was really outgoing,” Travers said. “He would just do crazy things.”

Mountain View grads are a closely knit group, Travers said, and McPeek was friends with Pfc. Sam Williams Huff and Navy Hospitalman Chadwick Thomas Kenyon. They all graduated in 2004, and all died in Iraq.

The word about McPeek spread fast through a network of old friends who keep losing buddies, Travers said.

“That’s probably the first thing out of people’s mouths after we talked about Alan is how all three of them passed away,” he said.

Mountain View High School students/graduates killed in Iraq and Afghanistan:

**Army Pfc. Sam Williams Huff, 18, died April 17, 2005, when the Humvee she was driving was hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. Mountain View class of 2004.

**Navy Hospitalman Chadwick Thomas Kenyon, 20, died Aug. 20, 2006, in Anbar province, Iraq. His vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device while he was conducting combat operations against enemy forces. Mountain View class of 2004.

**Marine Lance Cpl. Budd M. Cote, 21, died Dec. 11, 2006, when the Humvee he was riding in was hit a roadside bomb in Anbar province, Iraq. Cote attended Marana and Mountain View high schools before moving temporarily to Las Vegas. He returned to Tucson and attended Canyon del Oro High School, but dropped out and got his GED before joining the Marines.

**Army Sgt. Kenneth G. Ross, 24, died Sept. 24, 2005, in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan’s Deh Chopan district, 180 miles southwest of the capital, Kabul. Mountain View class of 1999.

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Tucson-area soldier dies fighting in Iraq

The Associated Press

MARANA, Ariz. — A Tucson-area soldier has been killed in combat in Iraq, the fifth former student from Marana Mountain View High School to die fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, authorities said Feb. 5.

Spc. Alan E. McPeek died Feb. 2 of injuries resulting from small-arms fire by enemy forces in Ramadi, Iraq, the Defense Department said.

McPeek, 20, was assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team with the 1st Armored Division in Giessen, Germany.

McPeek was a classmate of Army Pfc. Sam Huff and Navy Hospitalman Chadwick Kenyon, the Tucson Citizen reported on its Web site. All graduated in 2004. Other former Mountain View students to die in action were Army Sgt. Kenneth Ross and Marine Lance Cpl. Budd M. Cote.

Huff, Kenyon and Cote also died in Iraq; Ross died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan.

McPeek’s family said he was about to be promoted to sergeant and they had been planning his welcome home party when word came about his death.

“It hurts so bad,” said his mother, Rose Doyle. “I would like for our elected people to stop talking and stop debating and do something. Please, do something. Because it’s getting worse over there, and my son saw that it was getting worse.”

Her husband, Kevin Doyle, said McPeek enlisted at age 17 because “he decided he didn’t like what was going on over there and he wanted to make a difference.”

“He was in a very dangerous place,” Kevin Doyle added. “He didn’t see a lot of good happening there. He saw a lot of bad things going on.”

Kevin Doyle said McPeek “had hundreds and hundreds of friends. He was just loved by everybody. He was a joker. He always had a smile on his face.”

Funeral arrangements were incomplete, but his family said McPeek will be laid to rest in Tucson, where he had lived since age 2.

He was born in Hawaii while his mother was serving in the Navy there. He has a 13-year-old sister.

“We were offered the choice of a burial at Arlington National Cemetery,” Kevin Doyle said. “But we chose to bring him home.”