Army Spc. Darius T. Jennings

Died November 2, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Cordova, S.C.; assigned to 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; killed Nov. 2 in an attack on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq.

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Soldier was ‘ready to come home’

Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Spc. Darius Jennings had told his mother he was ready to return to the United States.

“About two weeks ago, he called me and he said, ‘Mama, I’m ready to come home,”’ Harriet Johnson, of Cordova, S.C., said on Monday.

Jennings was one of four soldiers based at Fort Carson to die in the crash of a helicopter in Iraq on Sunday. He had often started his sentences with, “Mama, when I get home...,” she said.

But in the more recent call, he was plain.

“He said, ‘I’m tired, I’m not used to this,”’ she said. She told him to talk to a chaplain.

Jennings, who would have turned 23 on Nov. 13, was with the 2nd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Carson.

He had enlisted in the Army in June 2001 and wanted to pursue an education. Johnson said Jennings’ dream was to become a photographer.

Johnson said she visited her son in Colorado Springs for a week in March before he shipped out.

Jennings is survived by his wife, Ari; his mother; his stepfather, John Johnson, who helped raise him since childhood; and a sister, Latrese, 19.