19 Forever

Duncan and Droll

Today would have been Duncan Crookston's 21st birthday. He would have been of legal age to go bar hopping and partying. Unfortunately on September 04, 2007 Duncan was severely wounded in EFP strike that severely wounded SGT Joe Mixson, and killed SGT Joel Murray, SPC David Lane, and SPC Randy Shelton.
Duncan fought for his life for 4 months until his body succumbed to his wounds. It was not lack of spirit by any means because Duncan showed that he was as tough as they come. A true warrior. He died in the presence of his beautiful wife, his mother, his battle buddy SGT Joe Mixson.
As his mother said in a letter sent to family and friends, he will forever be 19. I think about him often and wished that I would've expressed to him how much I admired his skill, intellect, intelligence, and warrior spirit. He first came to my squad right before we deployed in support of OIF. Everyone marveled at his genius, and later at his bread making skills when we were in country. He was so smart that when our shit bag RTO Mavity didn't return from RnR Duncan was the only logical choice to be in charge of the Platoons radios. I was so pissed off when they took him from my squad. He was my driver at the time and also my Grenadier. When he died I often wished that it was Mavity in his place as which it should have been. I really wished it never happened but if it had to be someone not him. He should have been in my truck with me.
Duncan was nothing shy of truly amazing with the heart and stamina he possessed surviving as long as he did so he could get home and be able to see his family one last time before he passed away.
I post here to keep his memory alive and to remind people that rough men do stand ready to violence on their behalf. Duncan was smart enough to go to any school he wanted but he chose the Army and he chose the Infantry. If there were not patriots like Duncan ready to answer the call this country would cease to exist.
Here is the letter that his mother sent out the day he passed away.

Dear Friends and Family,It is with great sadness I write to you today - Duncan passed away at 3:346 p.m. today after the decision was made to stop heroic measures. Duncan developed another infection over the past two days, the effects of which were causing him a great deal of pain and causing him to run a fever of 108* F overnight. The doctor who treated Duncan said he had never heard of anyone surviving such a high fever, and that normally the body did not allow itself to sustain such a high temperature for even 15 minutes, let alone the 2 hours Duncan suffered with it. The doctor said it was an indication the hypothalamus of the brain, which regulates body temperature, was damaged. He also advised us even though Duncan survived, he would have permanent and widespread brain damage that would eventually cause his organ systems to fail, and that his kidneys were already dialysis dependent, and he was quickly becoming ventilator dependent. Meaghun and I were asked to make a decision, and we chose to allow Duncan to die a dignified and peaceful death, so he was given a morphine drip and taken off the ventilator. He died about 45 minutes later surrounded by his beautiful wife, his mother, his battle buddy Joe Mixson and the hospital chaplain he had come to know during his stay. It is the closest thing to a "good death" one could ask for a young man who fought so hard and long, only to have the limits of his body betray him. Once we knew there was no chance of any sort of quality of life, we felt we could not ask this brave young man who lived life to its fullest to spend his remaining days hooked to machines with no chance of recovery.Words cannot express the gratitude we feel towards all those who offered support and prayer to Duncan and our families during the past 5 months. We can take away from this experience the knowledge that good people exist in this world, that evil is worth fighting or that reason, and Duncan was a proud example of a good person who did not stand by and allow it to flourish by doing nothing. Duncan would have been 20 years old tomorrow - he will be forever 19 now, and forever missed.
Love, Lee Crookston

Forever 19, Happy Birthday Duncan. You will never be forgotten.

2008 in Review

2008 is behind us now.

I started 2008 at FOB Rustamiyah, and if memory serves me well shortly after midnight there Garrison burst through my door in a thong that said "I love my Soldier" and jumped into my bed. The rest of the men were gathered outside snapping pictures. I don't know where those pictures went but they will probably resurface if any of those guys read this post. I was there for the first snow fall in Baghdad in roughly over 60 years. That was the same day we escorted a bunch of nuclear waste, that was a fun day let me tell you.


A good man's body succumbed to injuries he had sustained 4 months earlier the day before his 20th birthday. Duncan Crookston the resident Charlie Company Genius will never be forgotten.
Things were relatively quite in our sector and we were doing barrier missions and setting up check points on one of the worst routes in Iraq at the time. We were trying to get that stretch of highway in our area safe for all those that passed through it. Many a night we were out there laying down jersey barriers and building checkpoints that the Iraqi's and us could use to set up traffic control points. There was still the ongoing mission of grabbing high value targets in which we favored over the barriers. We reoccupied the COP and felt safer out there than we did at the FOB since the rocket and mortar attacks had increased.
Then only days before handing over our sector to the 4thID we rolled out into the streets in mid day to find all the check points abandoned and nobody on the roads. We hit a mosque and found loads of weapons and IED and EFP making materials. We stirred a hornets nest and on the drive back to drop the cache off the Rocket Magnet (Simmons) lead vehicle was hit with an EFP and RPG. Rendering the vehicle useless so that we had to get out and hook it up to tow. Once that crew dismounted the small arms fire picked up and we started to fire back at suspected enemy locations to din the fire long enough to get the truck hooked up.
During this uprising two more Task Force Ranger soldier's were killed and others severely wounded. Sadr's uprising and ending of the cease fire were in full effect and everybody came out to fight. The day after the Mosque raid and ambush we headed back into sector and got into a short skirmish just minutes away from our COP which ended after our 1st Platoon opened up on a wahabi that had just fired an RPG at them with a .50cal. Later that night my Platoon raided the Mosque down the street from us that we had been waiting to hit forever and a day. It was a dry hole and then later we were summoned to help out our sister company, and also relieve some National Police that were holed up at their compound. D co lead the way and it almost seem like every 5min you heard an IED blow up. No casualties as we monitored their net and sped to link up with them seeing all the destruction that nearly missed them in their wake. They began shooting anything suspicious which paid off after several more explosions. Only days before we were supposed to be relieved we were caught up in a huge fire fight. As dawn broke RPG wielding terrorists braved the roof tops to fire down on our Dco sent into get a platoon from one of our sister companies. Hannibal let fury ring from his 24o and mowed them down. We were sent down to pull security on the exfil route and it seemed as if everyone with a weapon wanted to come out and play, we continued movement once the rest of the convoy was ready to go and steady shot our way off of a 2mi stretch of road. Some of the terrorists Hannibal would shoot would be dragged away from their machine gun at the end of the road and another would jump behind it.
2nd Platoons last days in sector would be spent on COP security and the other platoons going out into Indian Country. A couple of weeks later we were on birds headed for home and reunited with our families. Its hard to believe that just last March we were in a pitched battle only days before heading for home.


Reunited with our families most of us took block leave to get reacquainted. Some of missed the camaraderie of the people we had just spent 15 months with. As is true in the Army, they built a great family and then separated them. Some getting out just last month and others getting out this month and in the next couple of months. Some stayed on for another tour, and some are actually already back in Iraq.
I bid farewell to Kansas which in hindsight was stupid because Fort Jackson flat out sucks, and now I realize that my place is on the line getting Soldier's ready to go to war. It wouldn't be so bad if I actually had more time to spend with the family but right now the job that I'm in doesn't offer it. Quite frankly none of them are to excited to be here. I asked for it and I got it, well doom on me.
I have had the opportunity to open some more doors though and we will see which ones I can actually get through. I've gotten to spend a little quality time with the family which I'm thankful for. I miss the old friends from Riley, and I wish I still had the opportunity to lead those that stayed on back there.
The world is a pretty unstable place leading into 2009, we have a new president that has promised us change, we will see what happens. We could certainly use some change.
To everyone I wish a happy New Year and hopefully this one is better than the last. To all my friends and brothers in harms way stay safe.
DEUCE DEUCE OUT!!!!!

Reunited with SGT Joel L. Murray on his birthday shortly after arriving home. He was laid to rest in Fort Riley Kansas.