NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense
No. 585-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2004
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died on June 16, 2004, in Balad, Iraq, during a mortar attack when mortar rounds hit their camp. Killed were:
- Major Paul R. Syverson III, 32, of Lake Zurich, Illinois. Syverson was assigned to the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
- Specialist Jeremy M. Dimaranan, 29, of Virginia Beach, Virginia. Dimaranan was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 302nd Transportation Company, 172nd Combat Support Group, Fort Eustis, Virginia.
- Sergeant Arthur S. Mastrapa, 35, of Apopka, Florida. Mastrapa was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 351 Military Police Company, 95th Military Police Battalion, 16th Military Police Brigade, Ocala, Florida.
The incident is under investigation.
Hersey grad killed in action in Iraq
17 June 2004
Joy Syverson knew something was wrong when she heard on the radio two unnamed American soldiers were killed in IraqWednesday.
Call it mother’s intuition.
Her son, Major Paul Syverson III, a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, with the airborne 5th Special Forces Group, was killed in action.
“I was at Lord & Taylor, shopping at Woodfield. Something just didn’t feel right, and I drove home and tried to call my husband on my cell,” she said.
By the time she arrived at her Lake Zurich home at 4 p.m., an Army Major was waiting to deliver the bad news. Her husband, Paul Syverson II, learned at work their son had died.
Syverson was the couple’s only child. He would have turned 33 in October. The couple left today for Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to join their son’s family – wife Jackie, son, Paul, 7, and 2-month-old Amy Elizabeth – for a Tuesday memorial service.
“Everything is so hard,” a distraught Joy Syverson said hours after hearing the news. “I’m going to have an emptiness in my heart for the rest of my life. He was everything that I lived for. I don’t know what my purpose in life is anymore.”
Syverson was present for his daughter’s birth and returned to Iraq four weeks ago. That was the last time his parents spoke to him. No one knew where he was headed, and he had only two more weeks of duty before returning home.
“This particular mission came out of the blue,” Joy Syverson said. “He was supposed to be home. We were going to see him on the Fourth of July.”
Syverson had been promoted to the rank of Major on April 29, 2004. He was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for helping put down a November 2001 prison revolt at Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.
He grew up in Arlington Heights and graduated from John Hersey High School in 1989. He completed military training at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, in 1993.
Syverson was drawn to the military lifestyle at an early age. He was in the Civil Air Patrol and Junior ROTC.
“His whole life, from the time he was a child, he was interested in our country,” Joy Syverson said. “He followed his heart. That’s where he always wanted to be, he always wanted to serve the country.”
But there was a gentler side to him, too. In school, he played the violin in an orchestra.
Charles Venegoni, Syverson’s English teacher at Hersey, said Syverson was a “good-natured kid” who worked hard for his grades.
“He was a quiet kid who was always smiling,” Venegoni said.
Syverson also played on the high school football team that won the state championship in 1987.
Even in their pain, the Syversons couldn’t help being proud of their hero son.
“He was a great kid and was a wonderful father and wonderful son,” his father Paul Syverson said.
The war in Iraq has claimed the only child of a Lake Zurich, Illinois, couple.
Paul and Joy Syverson were notified Wednesday their son, Army Major Paul Syverson III, 32, was killed in action.
A native of Arlington Heights, Syverson graduated from Hersey High School in Arlington Heights in 1989> He played on the 1987 stat champion football team. A teacher there described him as “good natured.”
Syverson graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1993. He received a commission and served with the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
“He was a great kid,” Paul Syverson said Thursday, before leaving with his wife for Fort Campbell to be with their daughter-in-law, Jackie, and two grandchildren, Paul 7, and Amy Elizabeth, 2 months.
“We never had a problem with him,” his father said. “He always got good grades — not great — but good.”
Syverson, who earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his efforts during a 2001 battle in Afghanistan, was promoted to the rank of major April 29, 2004.
His family had expected him to return home in two weeks to spend the Fourth of July holiday with them.
“He was in Special Forces and we never really knew what he was doing,” Paul Syverson said. “He never said anything negative about any assignment he had. He totally supported the government.
“He was a true blue guy.”
A memorial service for the fallen soldier has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday near Fort Campbell.
Soldier Killed in Iraq Planned U.S. Visit
18 June 2004
A soldier who kept his scheduled return home secret for a Father’s Day surprise was killed along with two other soldiers in a mortar attack in Iraq, officials and family members said Friday.
Sergeant Arthur Stacey Mastrapa, 35, of Apopka, died Wednesday in Balad, Iraq, when mortar rounds hit his camp, according to the Department of Defense.
Mastrapa, whose unit was scheduled to return to the United States on Friday, had hoped to surprise his family.
“He wanted to surprise me for Father’s Day,” said his father, Arthur Mastrapa, 61. “He was a joy to have around — a very good, happy person.”
Mastrapa was a member of the Army Reserve’s 351st Military Police Company, based in Ocala.
The unit left in February 2003 during the buildup to the war in Iraq, and its return home was planned and delayed twice before. A homecoming parade for the soldiers of the 351st was planned Thursday.
Mastrapa, who had a wife and two children, worked as a postal carrier.
“He liked being in the military,” said his brother Mark Mastrapa. “He really loved serving his country.”
Also killed in the attack were Army Major Paul R. Syverson III, 32, of Lake Zurich Illinois; and Army Reserve Specialist Jeremy M. Dimaranan, 29, of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Local Army officer killed in Iraqi attack
June 18, 2004
His family was uneasy when Army Major Paul Syverson III was abruptly ordered this spring to return to Iraq, but the decorated Special Forces officer accepted his new assignment calmly.
Syverson, who had served in Iraq on three previous occasions, told relatives his six-week overseas mission meant he’d be home in time to celebrate July 4th.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be safe,’ ” his mother, Joy Syverson, recalled Thursday, standing outside her Lake Zurich home. “But this trip, for some reason, haunted me.”
Syverson, 32, couldn’t keep his promise to return safely. He was one of two U.S. servicemen killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on his base north of Baghdad.
Besides his parents, he is survived by his wife, Jackie, and two children, 7-year-old Paul IV and 7-week-old Amy Elizabeth.
He was present for his daughter’s birth on April 27, then shipped overseas in May, his father, Paul Syverson II, said.
On Thursday, his parents recalled how their only child planned from the time he was 12 years old to serve in the military. That devotion didn’t flag even after he was seriously wounded in Afghanistan in 2001, his parents said. He received a Bronze Star and Purple Heart after fighting there to quell a prison revolt.
“He never talked about it, he never sought glory, he just wanted to do his job as a soldier,” his mother said. “He just loved being out in the field with his men.”
Syverson, who was born in Rhode Island but grew up in northwest suburban Arlington Heights, read military history voraciously, then joined the Civil Air Patrol and junior ROTC while at John Hersey High School. He played as a sophomore on the school’s state championship football team in 1987, but also loved music and was an accomplished violinist.
After Hersey, he attended the Virginia Military Institute. He graduated in 1993 and was commissioned into the Army.
He joined the Special Forces, and because he spoke Arabic he frequently spent time in the Middle East, even before the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, family members said.
Because of the secretive nature of his duties, his parents often weren’t sure exactly where he was or what he was doing.
“We were always concerned when he was overseas,” his father said.
They’re not sure why their son was ordered back to Iraq this spring. He was expecting to go to an Army command school in Kansas, which he was looking forward to because it would give him plenty of time to spend with his wife and children.
“They were going to have a whole year together,” Joy Syverson said.
Although he was a professional soldier, their son had a sweet, sometimes goofy side that endeared him to virtually everyone he met. While most of his comrades stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, drove big, four-wheel-drive pickups and sport utility vehicles, Syverson proudly tooled around in a small Toyota.
“He was a gentleman and a gentle person,” his mother said. “Everybody liked him.”
Syverson doted on his wife, whom he met on a blind date at a military ball, and his children.
“His son just idolized him,” Paul Syverson II said of his son and grandson.
A memorial service is planned for next week at Fort Campbell. The family plans to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery.
Syverson’s parents are grateful for the time they had with their son.
“I have a lifetime of the most beautiful memories,” Joy Syverson said, pausing to wipe away tears. Then she added: “I really wish I could have seen him one more time.”
Classmates mourn loss of another VMI grad
BY REX BOWMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
June 19, 2004
A Virginia Military Institute graduate was killed in Iraq this week, the fourth VMI graduate to die in combat in the past nine months and the second in two weeks.
U.S. Army Major Paul R. Syverson III, a Special Forces company commander and member of VMI’s class of 1993, died Wednesday of wounds sustained from a rocket attack at Balad.
The same day Syverson was killed, National Guard Specialist Ryan E. Doltz, VMI’00, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Doltz was killed by an improvised bomb June 5.
In November 2001, Syverson was the subject of national news reports for his role in quelling a prisoner revolt at the Mazar-i-Sharif fortress in Afghanistan. He won a Bronze Star for his action.
An American hero’
FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY – Major Paul R. Syverson III was scheduled to report to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., this week to attend school for newly promoted Army Majors.
Instead, the 32-year-old “Green Beret” assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Campbell volunteered two weeks ago for a third tour of duty in Iraq. However, Syverson was killed a week ago today while standing outside the PX at a U.S. base in Balad, north of Baghdad. He had stopped to purchase equipment when a rocket exploded on Camp Anaconda, killing him and two other U.S. soldiers.
“He died not part of a planned military activity,” Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Haas said outside the Memorial Chapel here, where a memorial service was held Tuesday for Syverson. “He was just standing there when the rocket came in. That’s the nature of Iraq in a combat zone.”
Syverson, who joined the 5th Group in 1999, will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, according to public affairs specialists for the 5th Group. He is the 62nd soldier from Fort Campbell to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
During the memorial ceremony, 5th Group commander Colonel Hector Pagan described Syverson as “a top notch officer” and “a young man who was really squared away.”
“When a mission needed to be accomplished, Paul was the first to volunteer,” Pagan said. “I looked at Paul and wished I had been as good a Captain and Major as he was.”
Syverson’s wife, Jackie, put her arm around the couple’s son, Paul Jr., 7, and whispered to him as photographs of Syverson in uniform and with his family were shown.
“Jackie, he always talked about you, but I think it was because he still couldn’t believe you married him,” Maj. Scott Brower said in his tribute to Syverson. “Little Paul, you were the shining light of his life.”
In addition to his wife and son, Syverson is survived by his daughter, Amy, 2 months.
The song, “Amazing Grace,” was played on bagpipes. In a customary last roll call, Syverson’s name was called out three times to silence.
A decorated officer, Syverson and four other 5th Special Forces soldiers are known for retrieving the body of CIA agent Johnny “Mike” Spann, who was killed in an Afghanistan prison uprising in November 2001 at a fortress near the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. Spann was the first American killed in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The five men also captured John Walker Lindh, the American serving a 20-year prison sentence for assisting the Taliban.
However, as a result of a misguided U.S. bomb fired in the uprising, Syverson suffered severe back injuries and subsequently earned a Purple Heart for his wounds. He also received a Bronze Star for his actions in Afghanistan.
“I have no doubt that Paul loved the Special Forces Group. But more importantly, we loved him. He was the total package, a complete officer,” Haas said.
In a Dec. 4, 2001, news conference here, Syverson said it was necessary that he recover from his injuries and return to combat in the war against terrorism.
“We’re grateful that we’re back here with our families and get to spend some time with them, but we really need to be back where our unit is and where our friends and fellow soldiers are,” Syverson said in the interview.
Posthumously, Syverson will be awarded two additional Bronze Stars and another Purple Heart for his service during the Iraq war.
“Paul Syverson was a patriot who loved his family and country,” Bower said. “Paul Syverson was our friend. Paul Syverson was an American hero.”
Soldier’s death shocks, saddens
Hersey graduate killed in Iraq recalled fondly by those who knew him
BY NICOLE WAGNER AND ANDREA L. BROWN
STAFF WRITERS
Even though Paul Syverson III and his family moved years ago from Arlington Heights to Lake Zurich, he left a lasting impression among the people who knew them.
A member of the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group, U.S. Army Major Syverson, 32, was one of three soldiers killed June 16 during a mortar attack on their camp in Balad, Iraq, a Department of Defense release stated. The Army is still investigating the incident.
“I have an image of him right now in front of me,” said Linda Glover. Now a resident of Arizona, the former Arlington Heights resident recalls taking her daughter to study violin in the same Suzuki program that Syverson was enrolled in. The image she kept was of a nice and very polite young man, she said.
Syverson graduated in 1989 from Arlington Heights’ John Hersey High School, where he was involved in a number of activities. He played in the orchestra for four years and was on the debate team and in ROTC. He was an honor roll student, a National Honor Society member and played football four years.
Syverson was remembered as a well-rounded student who played violin in the orchestra and also participated in athletics.
Although Syverson was not a starter, he was a defensive player on the Hersey’s Husky football team, which won the IHSA Class 6A state championship in 1987. Retired Hersey Coach Mike Mullaney remembers Syverson as the consummate team player.
“Whenever you needed somebody to volunteer to be a special team player or provide a scout team, he was always the first to stand up,” Mullaney said. “Those people are key on your football team.”
John Novak, the school’s assistant principal for student activities, said news of Syverson’s death shocked the Hersey community.
“Many people knew him or knew who he was,” Novak said. “Even faculty that didn’t know him — when you read about him and what he’s accomplished, that’s a young man you can be proud of coming from your school.
A friend of the family, Belle Hoffman of Arlington Heights, said she ran into the Syversons last Easter, who told them about their son’s wedding, which took place in Italy.
A military memorial service was scheduled Tuesday at Syverson’s base in Fort Campbell, Ky. Funeral services are scheduled at Arlington National Cemetery July 13, 2004.
Syverson is survived by his wife Jackie, 7-year-old son Paul and 2-month-old daughter Amy Elizabeth. A person who answered the phone at Syverson’s Kentucky apartment said the family declined comment. Pioneer Press couldn’t reach his parents Paul and Joy Syverson, of Lake Zurich, for comment last week. Their home was decorated with an American flag and a banner that read “God Bless Our Troops.” People left flowers on their front doorstep, and the trees on their property were tied with yellow ribbons.
Syverson graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1993. Syverson earned the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for his effort in quashing a prison revolt in Afghanistan in 2001.
Family overwhelmed by tributes to soldier
By Madhu Krishnamurthy
Courtesy of the Daily Herald
June 30, 2004
Major Paul Syverson III
Stacks of mail offering condolences greeted Joy and Paul Syverson when they returned home to Lake Zurich from their only son’s memorial service at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Major Paul Syverson III, 32, with the Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), was killed June 16, 2004, in a mortar attack on Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, along with two other soldiers. He was also a veteran of the Afghanistan war.
“There’s letters from so many people here, from all over the country,” Joy Syverson said.
The family also received an American flag flown over the nation’s Capitol presented to the family by U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald, and a “beautiful” letter from Congressman Philip Crane, Paul Syverson said.
Several Web sites also have surfaced paying tribute to the fallen soldier who grew up in Arlington Heights, graduated from Hersey High School in 1989 and Virginia Military Institute in Lexington in 1993.
More than 450 people, including family and friends from the Chicago suburbs and elsewhere, attended the June 22 ceremony at Fort Campbell.
“We were surprised how many people made the trip,” Paul Syverson said. “The support was just wonderful. He was such a good kid. Everybody loved him.”
He added there wasn’t a dry eye in the chapel when a military officer called out Syverson’s name three times for the “last roll call.”
“That was very moving,” Paul Syverson said.
Syverson received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for being injured while helping put down a November 2001 prison revolt in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. He will be awarded two additional Bronze Stars and another Purple Heart posthumously, the Associated Press reports.
He will receive full military honors at a funeral service at 9:45 a.m. July 13 in the Old Post Chapel at Fort Myer in Virginia. Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. July 12 at Murphy Funeral Home in Alexandria, Va. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The family has established an education trust fund for Syverson’s two children Paul, 7, and 2-month-old Amy Elizabeth. Contributions may be sent to The Syverson Children Trust Fund, c/o Bank One, One Bank Plaza, Lake Zurich, IL 60047. Memorial contributions may also be sent in Syverson’s name to Chapter 38, Special Forces Association Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 223, Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223.
A local memorial service is planned for September.
Army Major, Marine Mourned at Arlington
By Jason Ukman
Courtesy of The Washington Post
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
In the short life of Army Major Paul R. Syverson III, one filled with journeys throughout the Middle East and stories of heroics in Afghanistan, it was family that mattered most.
These were the people he loved: the woman he married after meeting her on a blind date at a military ball, the son he took camping in state parks, the newborn daughter he hardly had a chance to know.
Yesterday, they gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to bid farewell to Syverson, an Illinois native who was killed June 16, 2004, when a mortar shell slammed into a U.S. military camp in Balad, Iraq. He was 32.
Syverson’s was a life dedicated to country and committed to family, according to those who knew him.
The life of Lance Corporal Patrick R. Adle, even shorter than Syverson’s, was dedicated to country, too, but death cheated him of an opportunity to start a family of his own. Adle, a 21-year-old Marine from Bel Air, Maryland, was killed June 29, 2004, in a roadside bombing near Baghdad. Just hours after the funeral party for Syverson departed the cemetery, a group of mourners arrived for Adle.
Syverson and Adle were the 75th and 76th casualties of the Iraq war to be buried at Arlington. Though their paths probably never crossed in life, they will be forever near each other in death. Their graves lie side by side, at the end of a long row of marble headstones marking the final resting places of other Iraq war casualties.
Syverson was a highly trained Special Forces soldier, schooled in international studies and Arabic. He was a decorated veteran who had served in Kosovo and Afghanistan. He had graduated from Virginia Military Institute and married the daughter of a former U.S. ambassador to Italy. “The guy was destined for greatness,” said Paul Arndt, a friend who met Syverson in the eighth grade in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Among his achievements, relatives and friends said, was his role in the war in Afghanistan. He was among the first soldiers to respond to the 2001 prison uprising in Mazar-e Sharif, where he helped retrieve the body of CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann.
During the mission, an errant U.S. bomb exploded near Syverson, bursting both his eardrums and injuring his back. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. After recovering from his injuries, he returned to action and served three tours of duty in Iraq.
He had a week or two to go in his third tour when he was killed last month.
Waiting at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was his wife, Jackie, along with their son, Paul IV, 7, and daughter, Amy Elizabeth, who at the time of his death was 2 1/2 months old.
Yesterday, “Little Paul,” dressed in a tiny blue blazer, laid his head on his mother’s shoulder as they sat near Syverson’s grave. They held hands as they rose to put flowers on the flag-adorned coffin. Jackie Syverson kissed her hand and laid it on the coffin; Little Paul did the same.
Little Paul “knows what happened,” said his grandfather, Paul Syverson. “Whether he’s just hiding it or not thinking about it or what, I don’t know. . . . He has times when you can see in his eyes he’s very sad.”
Just three years out of high school, Adle had no children, but he did not lack loved ones. His funeral was attended by several hundred people, and his coffin was surrounded by countless wreaths.
Adle was assigned to the Marines’ 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Force Service Support Group.
He came from a long line of military men and was the first member of his family to die in combat since a great-uncle was killed at Iwo Jima during World War II.
The chaplain at the funeral, Lieutenant Cynthia Kane, noted that Adle had cared for a comrade who had fallen ill with pneumonia and that, at the time of his death, he had been part of a convoy escorting an ambulance. “His beautiful smile lit up the world,” she said.
Kane added: “In the shadow of Lance Corporal Patrick Adle’s life, which spanned a mere 21 years, we rejoice in the legacy of his restless spirit — a restlessness that led him into the United States Marine Corps in a time such as now in our world’s history.”
Syverson buried with full honors
BY ROBERT ROSS
STAFF INTERN
15 July 2004
Joy Syverson saw her only son for the first time Monday since he was killed in Iraq June 16, 2004. The next day, the boy who grew up in Arlington Heights playing violin and football, debating and marching with ROTC at John Hersey High School was lowered into his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.
A member of the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group, U.S. Army Major Paul Syverson III, 32, was one of three soldiers killed during a mortar attack on their camp in Balad, Iraq, a Department of Defense release stated. The Army is still investigating the incident.
After graduating from Hersey in 1989, Syverson turned down an invitation to attend West Point Military Academy, instead attending Virginia Military Institute. In 1993, upon graduating, he was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Patriotic salute
Syverson received full military honors at a funeral service in Fort Myer, Virginia, including a horse-drawn caisson escorted by the 3rd U. S. Infantry, a 24-piece Army band playing music selected by the Syversons, and a 21-shot rifle volley.
Survived by his wife Jackie, 7-year-old son Paul and 3-month-old daughter Amy Elizabeth, Syverson was a devoted family man. Eight years ago July 6 he and his wife were married in Vatican City.
Loved Illinois
He tried to instill his love of Illinois in his son, Joy Syverson said.
“Paul read history books from the time he was little,” she said. “We still have all his books about Patrick Henry and George Washington; he asked that we give them to little Paul so he could read them. He got to take little Paul to the castle here, Medieval Times. He wanted little Paul to do all of the things he had done in Illinois that he loved.
“Paul loved to go downtown, especially during St. Patrick’s Day,” she continued. “At times his friends down at Fort Campbell would say, ‘He comes back from Illinois and he just loves those unions and those politicians, someday when he retires, he’s going to get into some form of politics.’ “
Syverson volunteered to return to Iraq on a third tour of duty to help the military build a base, a task which he had experience with, Joy said. He was scheduled to attend command school at Fort Levenworth, Kansas, upon his return home July 1, 2004.
‘Terrible feeling’
Joy Syverson said she learned about her son’s death the day after the attack.
“All week I had felt the urge to get a black dress,” she said. “When I came down that morning and saw on the morning news that two soldiers were killed and 28 injured, I had this terrible feeling. I called my husband’s office later that day, and there was no answer.”
A little while later she learned about her son’s death.
The Syversons’ white colonial Lake Zurich home is draped in an American flag and a large banner that reads “God Bless Our Troops.” Baskets filled with packages and letters of condolence lie in their kitchen, a silent tribute to the impact Paul had on the community. A framed newspaper clipping hangs alone on the stairs leading to Paul’s room. Inside, a small desk covered by pictures of friends and cousins, a bookcase holding Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” and Rush Limbaugh’s “The Way Things Ought to Be,” and a fuzzy U.S. Army Special Forces coaster bear witness to the popular son.
“You could always tell Paul what you thought, and he would always listen,” Paul Syverson II said about his son. “He was always a good listener, always willing to consider others’ points of view. But, at all times, he was devoted to his country.”
Yellow ribbons can be seen up and down the Syversons’ street, as neighbors who knew Paul pay their respects. Three families living on the block attended a memorial service June 22 in Kentucky. One neighbor who went, Lake Zurich resident Caitlin Simms, remembers Syverson as “a family guy.”
“We had his family over for Thanksgiving, and he didn’t play any big-wig Marine, Army guy,” she said. “He just loved being with his family up here. Whenever he came back, he would take his family downtown or work on his Camero in the driveway with his dad. My fondest memory is when he couldn’t make it back for my 17th birthday, so he called me from Iraq.”
Many decorations
Hanging from a gold bracelet around Joy Syverson’s wrist are two Purple Hearts, one awarded to her son after he was injured while trying to put down a November 2001 prison revolt in Afghanistan, the other posthumously. He also has three Bronze Stars.
Syverson is the 62nd soldier from Fort Campbell to die in Iraq, three of which were from the 5th Special Forces Group. The others were from the 101st Airborne Division.
The Syversons have established an education trust fund for Paul’s two children. Contributions may be sent to The Syverson Children Trust Fund, c/o Bank One, One Bank Plaza, Lake Zurich, Illinois 60047. Memorial contributions may be sent in Syverson’s name to the Chapter 38, Special Forces Association Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 223, Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223.
A local memorial service is being planned, tentatively for September. Details will be announced later.
SYVERSON, PAUL ROLAND III
MAJ US ARMY
- DATE OF BIRTH: 10/24/1971
- DATE OF DEATH: 06/16/2004
- BURIED AT: SECTION 60 SITE 7992
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
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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