Army Staff Sgt. James E. Estep

Died November 15, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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26, of Leesburg, Fla.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell, Ky.; died Nov. 15 of injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee during combat operations in Taji, Iraq.

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Leesburg native killed in Iraq had premonition of death

Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. — Army Staff Sgt. James Estep had such a strong sense of foreboding that he would die in Iraq that he went over detailed funeral plans and made special family visits before his Oct. 2 deployment.

“The last time I saw him, he said, ‘Dad, I love you and probably won’t never see you again,”’ Estep’s stepfather, Richard Hayton, told the Orlando Sentinel. “Like he’d had a premonition.”

Estep, 26, and a father of three, was one of four soldiers killed by a roadside bomb in Taji, Iraq, on Nov. 15.

The blast also killed Spc. Alexis Roman-Cruz, 33, of Brandon. Both soldiers served with the 1st Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, based in Fort Campbell, Ky.

Estep, a graduate of the former Lee Adult High School in Leesburg, was living in Clarksville, Tenn., with his wife, Kelly, and three children.

A visit with a psychic shook Estep and made him believe he would die before he turned 27, Kelly Estep said.

“I had a weird feeling that he knew,” she said.

The psychic predicted James Estep would marry twice, divorce once and die before his 27th birthday. He had been married once before and turned 26 in March.

“Before he left, we went over funeral plans,” Kelly Estep said. “I didn’t want to, but he said ‘just in case.’ He wanted to be (buried) by his father, in a steel casket, full military honors.”