Army Staff Sgt. Saburant Parker

Died May 23, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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43, of Foxworth, Miss.; assigned to C Company, 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry Regiment, Mississippi Army National Guard, Biloxi, Miss.; killed May 23 when his military vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Haswa, Iraq. Also killed were Spc. Bryan Edward Barron, Spc. Audrey Daron Lunsford and Sgt. Daniel Ryan Varnado.

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Family of fallen soldier receives his medals

Associated Press

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — The family of Sgt. 1st Class Saburant “Sabe” Parker will have three medals as a legacy of his heroism.

Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross, the Mississippi National Guard’s adjutant general, gave Parker’s family the Mississippi Medal of Valor, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart during a Saturday memorial service at Hurricane Creek Baptist Church in Hattiesburg.

“They will remind this nation, this state and this community that we have a hero in our midst,” Cross said at the service attended by about 100 people, including Parker’s wife, children, other family, friends and military.

Parker, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant first class, and three other soldiers in the 155th Brigade Combat Team were killed May 23 when a bomb exploded beside their Humvee near Haswa, Iraq. They were assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry.

“Once again we come together in a small community to honor a soldier,” Cross said. “It comes to mind that over (1.2 million people) have paid the ultimate sacrifice in our 228-year history that we might be free.”

Sgt. Lee Trierweiler, 24, of Ocean Springs, served in Company C with Parker and attended the service. “He taught me gunnery,” Trierweiler said.

Trierweiler will return to Iraq on Tuesday after a two-week leave.

Parker worked as a loader operator at Angie Lumber Co. in Angie, La., and wrestled on the weekends for Southern Championship Wrestling, owned by David Peak of Columbia. Known in the ring as Sabot, Parker was the 2004 champion of the cruiser weight division, the lightest division, Peak said.

“The last match he was in for me was the cruiser weight champion against the heavy weight champion,” Peak said. “Sabot won.”

Fellow wrestler, Stanley Brady of Columbia, described Parker as tough.

“Me and him started out together,” Brady said. “My first match was with him. My hardest match was with him.”

Parker had been in the National Guard for 16 years and served with the 155th Separate Armored Brigade in Bosnia. He is also survived by a stepson, Ramsey Cumpton of Foxworth. His mother, Ora Lee Hayes, and other relatives live in North Carolina.