Army Spc. Jeremiah J. Holmes

Died March 29, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

27, of North Berwick, Maine; assigned to the 744th Transportation Company, Army National Guard, Hillsboro, N.H.; died March 29 when his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device and fell from a bridge near Balad, Iraq.

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New Hampshire guardsman remembered

By Mike Recht

Associated Press

DOVER, N.H. — Sgt. Jeremiah Holmes, the only New Hampshire National Guardsman killed in Iraq, was remembered as a hero to family, friends and his country.

Speaking at a Mass of Christian burial, Army National Guard Chaplain William Paige said Holmes “was a hero long before he was deployed” to Iraq.

He said Holmes was a hero to his wife; his son, whose first birthday is Thursday; his brothers and sisters, his friends.

“He was a hero to us,” he told the standing-room-only crowd of about 450 at St. Joseph Church. “He protected the ideals of freedom and democracy.

“It’s hard to say goodbye to a hero.”

His wife, Kimberly, later tearfully read a poem of remembrance.

Holmes, 27, who was born in Dover and lived in North Berwick, Maine, was killed March 29 when a bomb rocked the truck in which he was riding in a convoy.

Three regular Army soldiers from New Hampshire also have died in the Middle East, two in Iraq and one in Kuwait.

He was a member of the Army National Guard 744th Transportation Company with headquarters in Hillsboro, N.H., and detachments in Claremont and Somersworth. His unit was deployed for training in late December, and sent to Iraq in February for 18 months.

Of the 2,700 Army and Air National Guard members in New Hampshire, about 1,000 are serving in the Middle East.

About 75 members of the Air and Army National Guard were on hand for Wednesday’s service in the church where Holmes was baptized. They lined the entrance to the church at attention as his flag-draped coffin was carried inside by nine guard pallbearers, and again was it was brought out to the mournful skirl of a single bagpiper.

Holmes, who was promoted posthumously to sergeant, was buried at St. Mary New Cemetery, where his mother was buried after she was murdered in 1990.

New Hampshire Adjutant Gen. John Blair, a Vietnam combat veteran, presented Holmes’ wife with the folded flag from the coffin and the Bronze Star and Purple Heart that Holmes was awarded “on behalf of a grateful nation for the dedicated ... and heroic service of your husband.”

Dozens of friends and family members, led by Holmes’ wife, each placed a single flower on the coffin.

After the graveside service, Blair said every guard member knows the day could come when the country calls, and he or she is asked to respond.

But ever since hearing the news of Holmes, he said he has been thinking “how I prayed this day would never happen, and when it happened, that it would never happen again.”

And Wednesday, his thoughts also were with the families of those guardsmen still in Iraq.

“Their fears can only be heightened how,” he said.

He and his wife were among them. Their son is stationed in Turkey.

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National Guard soldier from Maine killed in Iraq

NORTH BERWICK, Maine — A New Hampshire Army National Guard soldier was killed in an explosion in Iraq when his vehicle ran over a roadside bomb.

Spc. Jeremiah Holmes, 27, a member of the New Hampshire Army National Guard 744th Transportation Company, was killed March 29 while driving a truck in Ramadi, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.

Holmes, of North Berwisk, was in a convoy west of Baghdad when the bomb detonated, knocking the tractor-trailer he was traveling in off a bridge, New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson’s office said in a news release. The death was first reported by Foster’s Daily Democrat.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jeremiah’s entire family,” Benson said. “These tragic events should remind us to thank the soldiers serving abroad.”

Another New Hampshire soldier from the 744th, Sgt. Randal S. Frotton, 41, of Newmarket, suffered injuries to his ribs and ankle, the news release said.

The 744th has 150 members and is headquartered in Hillsboro, N.H., with detachments in Claremont and Somersworth, N.H.

The unit was deployed for training in late December, and sent to Iraq in February for 18 months to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. Two other members of the unit were wounded in a similar incident about a week before Holmes was killed.

During the departure ceremony two weeks before Christmas, Holmes’ wife, Kimberly, held their infant son, Kaleb. When asked how she felt about his deployment, she told the newspaper, “Not good. I feel bad for the baby.”

Holmes, a 1994 graduate of Noble High School, was no stranger to tragedy. He was 13 when his mother, Sheila Holmes, 31, of Barrington, N.H., was murdered in Dover, N.H., in 1990.

Her death broke up the family, he said, and Holmes was raised by his grandparents in North Berwick. His four brothers and sisters went to two other families.

Holmes never gave up hope that his mother’s killer would be prosecuted.

“I’d like to see a little bit of closure for us,” he said two years ago. “You’re not going to forget about your mother, you’re not going to forget about your sister. You’re not going to forget the 12 years or how many other years it takes to find a conviction. Nothing will ever be closed totally.”

Holmes served on active duty from 1994 to 1999, when he joined the New Hampshire Guard.

A couple of years ago, Holmes and his wife bought a duplex a few houses down the street from his grandparents. Family members did not wish to talk to reporters, but neighbors expressed shock and sadness at his death.

“Jay was just a wonderful individual, a keeper,” said Patsy Koelker, using the name everyone knew him by. “He was kind and caring,” she said, and if there was an errand to be done, he was “at the head of the line.”

Koelker and her husband Tom, who have seven children, were like surrogate parents to Holmes when he moved onto their street, she said.

“Jay was number eight. He was always here. Things we did, if we could fit him in the car, he went,” she said.

Koelker said everyone was thrilled when Holmes and his wife moved back to the neighborhood.

“He was so happy to be back on this street,” she said. His life was going well, and he enjoyed his job as a manufacturer’s representative that involved some day travel but allowed him to go home each night to the family he loved, Koelker said.

In addition, Holmes was reunited with all four of his siblings at a wedding a year or two ago, she said, and they had gotten to know each other.

Holmes and his wife had been selected by Foster’s Sunday Citizen for a series of stories showing how one family copes with a military deployment.

“I’m worried about losing my best friend and not being able to see the person I’ve spent every day with for a year and a half,” Kimberly Holmes told the Dover newspaper in January. The day before her husband’s death, she was in the process of setting up a second interview.

Holmes is the sixth soldier with Maine ties to die during the Iraq conflict.

— Associated Press