Mississippi Army National Guard Spc. James A. Chance III

Died November 6, 2003 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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25, of Kokomo, Miss.; assigned to C Company, 890th Engineer Battalion, Army National Guard, based in Columbia, Miss.; killed Nov. 6 when his vehicle struck a landmine in Husaybah, Iraq.

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Spc. James A. Chance III didn't want his counterparts with spouses or children to risk themselves driving through dangerous territory in Iraq, family pastor Jimmy Jones said. So the Mississippi National Guardsman volunteered to lead his convoy. "He would do without so that someone could have. That's the way he was raised," older brother Allen Chance said. The 25-year-old from Kokomo, Miss., was killed Nov. 6 when his truck hit a land mine near the Syrian border. Chance usually stayed close to his parents' home, helping to care for his father, who is in a wheelchair and had served in Vietnam. The last conversation Allen Chance had with his brother was about their ailing grandmother. "He was worried about her and he was trying to get it where he could come home for a few days to see her," he said. "He never could get around to it." He is survived by his father, James Jr., and his mother, Patricia Ann.

— Associated Press