Army Spc. Jonathan J. Santos

Died October 15, 2004 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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22, of Whatcom, Wash.; assigned to the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed Oct. 15 when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle in Karabilah, Iraq. Also killed was Sgt. Michael G. Owen.

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Washington soldier killed in Iraq

Associated Press

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Spc. Jonathan Santos, 22, of Bellingham, has died from injuries suffered in an attack on his vehicle in Iraq, his mother said.

Santos, a linguist with the 9th Psychological Operations Battalion out of Fort Bragg, N.C., was injured Friday afternoon when an explosion hit his vehicle during combat operations, Doris Kent said.

He died less than four hours later. “He didn’t make it into the hospital,” Kent told The Bellingham Herald.

Maj. Paul Swiergosz, a Department of Defense spokesman, said the military could not provide details on service members killed in Iraq until 24 hours after a family member has been notified.

Santos left for his first tour of Iraq on Sept. 7 and celebrated his birthday there on Sept. 23, Kent said.

He had enlisted in the Army’s Delayed Entry Program in 2000 and entered the service with a four-year commitment after graduating the following spring.

“He didn’t want me to pay for college,” Kent said. “He said he wanted to do it on his own.”

She said he studied Arabic in the Army. He served in Haiti for about three months earlier this year, she said.

Kent said her son loved being with people and was an avid reader.

“When he was in Iraq he gathered about 75 books, so somebody named him ‘the librarian,”’ she said.

Sehome High School’s wrestling coach Scott Schroyer remembered Santos, a member of his team, as a quiet, solid, hardworking person who went out of his way to help his teammates and did whatever was asked of him.

“Wrestling’s a sport where you’ve got to be emotionally tough and you’ve got to show courage and he did that,” Schroyer said. “I remember one match in particular his senior year at the district tournament, he sort of rose up and upset a kid that he probably wasn’t supposed to beat.”

Santos’ two younger brothers attend Sehome High School and Fairhaven Middle School.

His father, Leslie Santos, serves in the military and is now stationed in Wisconsin, Kent said. The young man’s stepfather, Christopher Kent, and both his grandfathers were also in the military, Doris Kent said.

She had spoken with her son twice since he went to Iraq; the last time was two weekends ago.

Kent said an Army chaplain and another soldier knocked on the family’s door at 6 a.m. Saturday.

“You know what they came to say,” she said. “You don’t really want them to say anything. ... If they say it, it makes it real.”