Army Spc. Scott P. McLaughlin

Died September 22, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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29, of Hardwick, Vt.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 172nd Armor Regiment, 42nd Armor Division, Vermont Army National Guard, St. Albans, Vt.; killed Sept. 22 by enemy small-arms fire in Ramadi, Iraq.

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Guardsman never forgot Vermont’s forests and mountains

Associated Press

WATERBURY CENTER, Vt. — Vermont Army National Guard Spc. Scott McLaughlin was a Green Mountain Boy who never forgot the forests and mountains where he was raised, even when he was sent to Iraq.

People who attended his funeral Oct. 1 at the base of the Green Mountains heard how proud McLaughlin was to serve his country and also how much he loved the deer, the bear and the moose that live in the mountains around him.

“No matter what challenges he faced, he took with him the values that he’d learned here from his family, from his faith, from his community growing up across Vermont,” Maj. Gen. Martha Rainville, the commander of the Vermont National Guard, said at his funeral. “He, among others, was strongly, strongly connected to who he was and where he came from. He lived the values that we speak about so often.”

McLaughlin, 29, of Hardwick was killed Sept. 22 in Ramadi, Iraq, by small arms fire. He was the 18th Vermonter killed in Iraq, and the sixth Vermont National Guardsman. A 19th Vermonter, another guardsman, died of natural causes in Kuwait before being sent into Iraq.

McLaughlin was born in Berlin and grew up in West Bolton. He graduated from Mount Mansfield Union High School in 1994. He is survived by his wife, Nicole, and two children, Molly, 1, and Tyler, 6.

McLaughlin’s funeral came the day after that of National Guard Lt. Mark Dooley, a member of McLaughlin’s unit. Dooley was killed by a roadside bomb three days before McLaughlin.

His father Kevin told of the day Scott was born, the first word he spoke; his mother talked of his catching a grasshopper and learning to wink.

Kevin McLaughlin told of his son’s coming home one evening and telling them of standing under a tree and watching two bear cubs above him. His parents warned him that what he’d done was dangerous because the mother bear could have been close by.

“So, that’s what that noise was in the bushes,” he recounted Scott’s reply.

Both his parents spoke of how proud he was to be in the military.

“And especially how hard it was for him to leave his family that he so proudly loved so much. And we will miss him,” said his mother Vicki.

The family minister, The Rev. Ted Mallory, told of how on McLaughlin’s wedding day, he stood in his tuxedo with a fishing pole and managed to catch a few trout.

“One of his proudest moments was the day he received his dress uniform. It meant so much to him. It was his heart’s desire to bring honor to that uniform,” Mallory said.

“We need to remember that Scott surrendered his life far from home on behalf of those who are unable to protect themselves. The children and the suffering citizens touched his heart, as is indicated by his letters and his phone calls, his concerns for the children,” Mallory said. “Scott died helping the helpless.”