Army Staff Sgt. Christopher R. Webb

Died March 7, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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28, of Winchester, Calif.; assigned to 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died March 7 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during combat operations. Also killed were Spc. Shawn P. Rankinen and Spc. Michael D. Rivera.

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California soldier from military family killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — Staff Sgt. Christopher R. Webb loved the Army and his military veteran mother recalls watching him wearing a tiny uniform and playing soldier when he was child.

“He was 11 months old when I went into the Army,” Teresa Bullock of Lake Elsinore said of her son, who grew up in Hemet and Winchester. “His stepfather was also in the Army, and his grandfather was in the Marines.”

In October 1996, Webb left West Valley High School as a senior to attend Alessandro High continuation school, but he didn’t complete the program. He enlisted in the Army National Guard, earned his GED and transferred into the Regular Army.

Last week, the 28-year-old Webb was among three soldiers killed when an explosive detonated near their vehicle in Baghdad. All three were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

Webb’s mother said she always understood the danger her son faced.

“But we’ve tried to keep things positive and say we’d get through whatever we need to get through with the love and help of our friends and family,” she said. “With our belief in and support of a higher power, we are getting through this.”

Webb also left a wife and infant daughter.

“He was an easygoing kid — never any trouble. He was a God-loving young man,” his grandfather Lawrence Hoffmann, 71, of Hemet said. “He was just an all-American boy. I’m not handling this too good right now.”

Webb’s brother, Army Spc. Coy Bullock, was also deployed to Iraq in October and he had just finished chatting on the Internet with Webb minutes before he was killed, Hoffmann said.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Bullock said her son will be buried in Alturas, a community in Modoc County in Northern California where Webb’s wife, Shalan, and 6-month-old daughter, Mary, live.