Tenzin Lobsang Samten – Specialist, United States Army

by

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

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 208-08
March 14, 2008

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died March 12, 2008, in Tallil, Iraq, of wounds suffered when their vehicle was hit by indirect fire.

Killed were:

Staff Sergeant Juantrea T. Bradley, 28, of Greenville, North Carolina, who was assigned to the 7th Special Troops Battalion, 7th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Eustis, Virginia.

Specialist Dustin C. Jackson, 21, of Arlington, Texas, who was assigned to the 350th Adjutant General Company, Grand Prairie, Texas.

Private First Class Tenzin L. Samten, 33, of Prescott, Arizona, who was assigned to the 7th Special Troops Battalion, 7th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Eustis, Virginia.

March 18, 2008:

The Army says 33-year-old Pfc. Tenzin Samten of Prescott died from “indirect fire” in Iraq on March 12, 2008.

A press release from Fort Eustis in Virginia, where he served before his deployment to Iraq, says Samten was a “motor transport operator.”  He enlisted in the Army in July of 2006 and completed his basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, before taking on advanced training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

The Army assigned Samten to the 7th Sustainment Brigade, formally called the 7th Transportation Group.

Pfc. Tenzin Samten was 33 and married with three children.

On March 12 Samten was in a “non-tactical vehicle” and came under indirect fire – a term on which Army personnel did not elaborate as of press time – killing Samten and two others – Dustin C. Jackson, 21, of Arlington, Texas, and Juantrea T. Bradley, 28, of Greenville, Nnorth Carolina.

Samten posthumously received a promotion and the Purple Heart medal.  His wife and two children live in Virginia, according to the base, and his mother lives in California.  The family said they did not wish to speak about their loss at this time.

As of press time, Fort Eustis personnel had not said when Samten lived in Prescott, but they did list it as his hometown.

Yavapai County School Superintendent Tim Carter said he did not recall Samten’s name from his time working at Prescott High School.

“At the time he would have been there, I was the Assistant Principal,” Carter said. “It’s a pretty unique name, but I can’t say I remember it.”

A memorial service took place Tuesday at the fort’s regimental chapel.  More than 2,000 miles away, at the Prescott City Hall, Mayor Jack Wilson began the Prescott City Council meeting with an observance of Samten’s sacrifice.

“I thought it was appropriate since he lost his life serving his country,” Wilson said of his comments.  Along with information about Samten’s Army service, Wilson read two poems that illustrate the sacrifices of war: Theodore O’Hara’s 1847 “The Bivouac of the Dead,” and Roger Hancock’s 2002 “Not Free.”

City officials recorded Wilson’s presentation and are making arrangements to deliver the video to Samten’s family.

SAMTEN, TENZIN LOBSANG

  • SPC   US ARMY
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 11/16/1974
  • DATE OF DEATH: 03/12/2008
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 8556
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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