Army Spc. David J. Babineau

Died June 16, 2006 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

---

25, of Springfield, Mass.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.; killed June 16 while manning a checkpoint when he came under enemy small-arms fire in Baghdad.

---

Mass. soldier dreamed of becoming five-star general

By Adam Gorlick

Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — When members of his 1998 high school class wrote their so-called “last will and testament,” David Babineau predicted he’d be at their 20-year reunion as a five-star general.

Babineau always wanted to serve his country and enlisted in the Army after graduating from Springfield High School of Science and Technology, his mother said.

But his dream of five stars ended Friday when the specialist was killed at a checkpoint in Yusufiyah, outside Baghdad, Iraq. Two of his comrades from the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., were abducted in the attack.

“He was supposed to be home in May,” his mother, Dawn Babineau, said outside her home Monday. Instead, he was extended for a second tour of duty, she said.

News of Babineau’s death shocked those who knew him as a friendly student at the Springfield High School of Science and Technology.

“He died doing what he loved, what he wanted to be in life” Gladys Franco, one of Babineau’s classmates who now teaches history at their alma mater, told WGGB-TV.

“It’s sad that he had to go so young,” she said.

As much as he wanted to be a soldier, Babineau had more than the military in his life. Before going to Iraq, he lived with his wife, his 8-year-old stepdaughter, and two sons, ages 4 and 2 in Oak Grove, Ky.

Babineau and his unit were guarding the checkpoint Friday when they came under fire from many directions, said Ahmed Khalaf Falah, a farmer who said he witnessed the incident.

Seven masked gunmen, including one carrying what appeared to be a heavy machine gun, killed the driver of the third vehicle, then took the other two soldiers captive, Falah said.

The missing soldiers from Babineau’s unit are Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

In Oregon, Tucker’s family expressed their sympathy to Babineau’s family, and said they were, “praying for the safe return of our son, Tom, and Pvt. 1st Class Kristian Menchaca.”

Menchaca’s 18-year-old wife in Texas said through a chaplain that his family appreciated the concern and prayers for him.

U.S. troops have spent days looking for the missing soldiers, backed by helicopters and warplanes. They fanned out across the “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad. The predominantly Sunni region is the scene of frequent ambushes of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi troops.

An umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in a statement Monday that it had kidnapped the two U.S. soldiers, but it did not name them. There was no immediate confirmation that the statement was credible, although it appeared on a Web site often used by al-Qaida-linked groups.

At least 36 servicemen from Massachusetts have been killed since the Iraq war began.