Gene L. Lamie – Sergeant, United States Army

by

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 863-07
July 10, 2007

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died July 6, 2007, in Iraq of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle.

Killed were:

Sergeant Gene L. Lamie, 25, of Homerville, Georgia. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia.

Private First Class Ron A. Wilson, 18, of Queens, New York. He was assigned to the 26th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Georgia.

For more information related to this release, the media may contact the Fort Stewart public affairs office at (912) 767-2479.

 12 July 2007:

Sergteant Gene L. Lamie was one of three 3rd Infantry Division soldiers killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle, the Defense Department said in a prepared release. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Calvary Regiment of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, the Defense Department said.

Sergeant Lamie will be buried Wednesday with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, said his brother, Georgia National Guard Specialist John Lamie.

“It’s a house of heroes,” John Lamie said of Arlington. “He deserves to be there.”

John Lamie, who also served in Iraq, recalled what his brother had told him after his own squad suffered heavy casualties.

“He told me we were soldiers. We were meant to do what we were doing,” John Lamie said.

Some people are born to be carpenters, lawyers or preachers, but his brother was born to be a soldier, John Lamie said. “He believed in everything he did. He grew up with a soldier’s heart,” he said.

Sergeant Lamie, who enlisted in the Army before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, came home on leave afterward and told his family he was going to the war with the 1st Cavalry Division, John Lamie said. He later re-enlisted solely to transfer to the 3rd Infantry Division and go back to Iraq, John Lamie said.

His mother, Linda Lamie, said she was proud of her son.

“My son served his country. He was a soldier at heart. His biggest concern was to get the people under him home,” she said.

Sergeant Lamie loved to hunt and fish and was a big fan of Nextel Cup driver Tony Stewart and the Georgia Bulldogs. He liked to set his 8-month-old son, Gene Benjamin, on his lap and pretend to cast and reel in fish, she said.

Members of the Lamie family moved to Homerville from Folkston a few years ago to shorten the commute to Douglas, where Sgt. Lamie’s father, Eugene Lamie, had transferred to another job. Although the family was relatively new to Homerville, the community has rallied around them, John Lamie said.

“Even though we didn’t grow up here, this community has wrapped both arms around us, overwhelmed us with love and support,” he said.

There has been an equal outpouring of sympathy and affection in Folkston, where his family lived for years and where his maternal grandmother and other family members still live, John Lamie said.

Linda Lamie asked for continued prayers for the family and for those still serving in Iraq.

“I will pray every day until every soldier comes home,” she said.

In addition to his mother and brother, Sergeant Lamie is survived by his wife, Dara Lamie of Fort Stewart; a 3-year-old daughter, Lyrean; and a son, Gene Benjamin.

He is also survived by his father, Eugene M. Lamie of Homerville; a sister, Christy Bell of Douglas; fraternal grandparents, Eugene F. and Elsie Lamie of Homerville; and maternal grandmother, Della Taylor of Folkston.

He is preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, Bud Taylor of Folkston.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Shepard Funeral Home, 600 Oak St., Folkston. The Saturday memorial service will also be held at the Shepard Funeral Home.

One Carried On a Family Tradition; Another Was a ‘Soldier at Heart’
By Mark Berman
Courtesy of the Washington Post
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Army Private First Class Steven A. Davis was a fearless, stand-up guy who exceeded expectations and wanted to take care of his young family, those who knew him said. Yesterday, friends and family members gathered to honor Davis as he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Davis, 23, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was killed July 4, 2007,  in Baghdad when insurgents attacked his unit with grenades, the Defense Department reported. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

me-lamie

Lt. Col. Dusty Gray, an Army chaplain, addresses mourners of Sergeant Gene L. Lamie at Arlington National Cemetery.

More than 90 mourners stood under a cloudy sky and braved intermittent rain to pay their respects to Davis, who was the 351st member of the military killed in Iraq to be buried at Arlington.

Davis came from a family steeped in military tradition. His mother, Tess Davis, is a paramedic in Iraq; his grandfather, Rick Lara, is there as a mechanic; and his younger brother, Christopher, is a soldier there as well, said Davis’s father, Buck, an Army veteran who spoke to The Washington Post this month.

“He had no sense of any type of fear,” Buck Davis said. He said he had encouraged his son to work and go to school, because not everyone is suited for military service.

But Buck Davis said his son turned out to be “a really good soldier. He exceeded all of my expectations.”

As a teenager, Davis was the only youth allowed to play ice hockey with the grown-ups at Fort Bragg, his father said.

As an adult, Davis continued to show maturity beyond his years, joining the Army to support his family. His wife, Ayla, gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth, in April 2006.

“He wanted to be a man and take care of his family,” his sister-in-law Michelle Davis told The Post in an interview this month.

Yesterday, Ayla Davis received a folded American flag while Elizabeth sat on her grandmother’s lap. Davis’s parents also received flags, as the three family members in Iraq had returned for the funeral.

Although Davis had only been in the Army since 2005, he had received several awards, including the Purple Heart and Bronze Star Medal. He was on his first tour in Iraq and had been home in April to celebrate his daughter’s 1st birthday.

Beside his grave were half a dozen wreaths and floral arrangements, including a red and white wreath from the Baghdad fire department, with a card that read: “With heavy hearts, please hear the words we are not able to speak.”

Earlier yesterday, mourners had gathered to say goodbye to another Southern son, Army Sergeant Gene L. Lamie of Homerville, Georgia. Family members said that there was little doubt that Lamie was going to join the military.

“He grew up with a soldier’s heart,” his brother, John Lamie, told the Florida Times-Union last week.

His mother, Linda Lamie, agreed. “My son served his country. He was a soldier at heart. His biggest concern was to get the people under him home.”

Lamie, 25, died July 6, 2007,  in Iraq of wounds suffered when a makeshift bomb detonated near his vehicle. Ptrivate First Class Le Ron A. Wilson, 18, of Queens, New York, was also killed. Lamie was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

More than 50 mourners followed Lamie’s flag-draped silver coffin to his grave site. He was the 350th member of the military killed in Iraq to be laid to rest at Arlington.

Lamie’s wife, Dara, was presented with a folded flag, as were his father, Eugene M. Lamie, and mother.

Lamie’s brother John Lamie, a Georgia National Guardsman, served in Iraq and spoke with his brother after his own squad suffered casualties.

“He told me we were soldiers,” John Lamie told the Times-Union. “We were meant to do what we were doing.”

The Davis and Lamie services were among 32 burials at Arlington yesterday. Separated by two years in life and two days in death, the men were laid to rest side by side in what John Lamie called “a house of heroes.”

gllamie-gravesite-photo-august-2007-001

gllamie-gravesite-photo-july-2007-001

 

Read our general and most popular articles

Leave a Comment