U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release
IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 1114-07
September 13, 2007
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of seven soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Septtember 10,2007, in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related vehicle rollover. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Killed were:
Staff Sergeant Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Montana
Staff Sergeant Gregory Rivera-Santiago, 26, of St. Croix, Virgin Islands
Sergeant Michael C. Hardegree, 21, of Villa Rica, Georgia
Sergeant Omar L. Mora, 28, of Texas City, Texas
Sergeant Nicholas J. Patterson, 24, of Rochester, Indiana
Specialist Ari D. Brown-Weeks, 23, of Abingdon, Maryland
Specialist Steven R. Elrod, 20, of Hope Mills, North Carolina
The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.
September 13, 2007:
VILLA RICA, Georgia – The military says a 21-year-old from Georgia was among seven soldiers killed when their truck veered off an elevated highway in Baghdad.
Sergeant Michael C. Hardegee of Villa Rica was the son and grandson of paratroopers. He joined the Army after graduating from Villa Rica High School in 2004 and became a paratrooper, serving two tours of duty in Iraq.
Hardegee’s father, Stan, says he was expected to return home in another two months, possibly to enroll at the University of Alabama.
Stan Hardegee is an English teacher at Temple High School in Carroll County. The soldier’s mother, Cindy Hardegee, teaches social studies at Villa Rica High.
The Pentagon said Hardegee and six others died Monday of injuries from a non-combat vehicle rollover. They were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Goodbye to a Georgia Soldier
Army Sergeant Remembered as ‘Thoughtful and Serious’
By Mark Berman
Courtesy of the Washington Post
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
On September 1, 2007, Stan Hardegree posted a story on the Villa Rica Voice, a local news Web site he runs for the Georgia community, located a half-hour west of Atlanta. It was a travelogue about a trip he took to Washington to pick up a new BMW 5 Series, a welcome-home gift for his son, Michael, who was due back from Iraq soon.
Michael’s godfather, Bob Kruger, had purchased the car, and so father and godfather flew to Washington to pick it up and then drove back together. “It was a good day,” Stan Hardegree wrote.
Less than a month later, Hardegree was back for a much more somber task. He returned to bury his son at Arlington National Cemetery.
Army Sergeant Michael C. Hardegree, 21, of Villa Rica died September 10, 2007, in Baghdad, in a non-combat-related vehicle rollover, the Department of Defense reported. He and six other soldiers were killed when the truck they were riding in overturned. The circumstances are under investigation.
Michael Hardegree came from a tightknit family, said Margaret Kienzle, a longtime family friend. He adored his mother, Cynthia, respected his father and had a close relationship with his sister, Beth, Kienzle said.
“He was a very thoughtful and serious young man,” Kienzle said. “And it has been devastating, both to them and for all of their friends and everyone who knows them, because life will never be the same with him gone.”
More than 190 mourners gathered yesterday to say goodbye to Michael Hardegree. The throng of relatives and friends followed his flag-covered coffin while an Army band played.
Stan Hardegree told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he last spoke with his son the day before he was killed.
“I said, ‘Keep your head down,’ ” he told the paper. He said his son had agreed to come back and speak to a class at Temple High School, where Stan Hardegree teaches ninth- and 10th-grade English.
The last time Hardegree was home was for two weeks in June, when he surprised his mother on her birthday.
In 2004, Michael Hardegree graduated from Villa Rica High School, where his mother teaches social studies. His father and grandfather were both paratroopers, so he decided to continue the military tradition and joined the Army. He served two tours in Iraq.
He was due home in November, and he planned to go to college, get a degree and then head back to the military to try for Special Forces.
The six soldiers killed with Hardegree were Staff Sergeant. Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Montana; Staff Sergeant Gregory Rivera-Santiago, 26, of St. Croix, Virgin Islands; Sergeant Omar L. Mora, 28, of Texas City, Texas; Sergeant Nicholas J. Patterson, 24, of Rochester, Indiana; Specialist Ari D. Brown-Weeks, 23, of Abingdon, Maryland; and Specialist Steven R. Elrod, 20, of Hope Mills, North Carolina.
The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Two of the men, Gray and Mora, were among a group of soldiers who last month wrote a New York Times op-ed piece criticizing the U.S. strategy in Iraq and disputing claims of success.
As Stan Hardegree made the trip to Washington to drive the BMW home this past summer, his thoughts turned to his son.
“My mind wanders to Mike, slogging it out with the bad guys in Iraq, and I wonder how he will like his homecoming present,” Stan Hardegree wrote in his travelogue. “I figure that he will like it just fine.”
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Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard