DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died on Sep. 3 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle during combat operations. Both soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Wurzburg, Germany.
Killed were:
Sgt. Jason L. Merrill, 22, of Mesa, Ariz.
PFC Edwin A. Andino II, 23, of Culpeper, Va.
Jason L. Merrill, 22, born April 15, 1984, in Mesa, Arizona. Beloved son, brother, grandson, friend and soldier. Killed in action, September 3, 2006, while in Iraq honorably serving his country as a Sergeant in the United States Army. Survived by his loving parents, Tim and Sue Merrill; his three sisters: Amber, Ashlea and Alyssa; his grandmothers: Fern Merrill and Frances Dickson; and many other loving relatives and friends. Funeral services will be held on Friday September 15, 2006 in the LDS Kimball East Stake Center, located at 4640 E. Holmes, Mesa, AZ 85206 at 2:00 P.M. Viewing for family and friends is scheduled for the evening of Thursday September 14, 2006 from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. held at Meldrum Mortuary, located at 52 N. Macdonald, Mesa, AZ 85201. In lieu of flowers please make donations in Jason’s name to Packages from Home at www.packagesfromhome.org Sign the Guest Book at eastvalleytribune.com
Published in the East Valley Tribune on 9/13/2006.
Sgt. Jason L. Merrill survived a year in Iraq as a tank gunner but was killed in combat only three weeks after he started his second tour of duty there.
Merrill, 22, of Mesa, and Pvt. Edwin A. Andino II, 23, of Culpeper, Va., were killed Sunday in the explosion of a roadside bomb near Baghdad, the Defense Department said Friday.
Merrill, who ran with the bulls in Spain during one of his leaves while stationed in Germany, could have been a recruitment video for the Army, his dad, Tim, said. After he signed up, he went from being a listless teenager to a young man with a mission. He wanted to help children by becoming a pediatrician.
“He blossomed in the military. You could see it in his face,” said Merrill, 50, an information-technology manager. “I was very proud of what he had become. He went from being a boy to being a man.”
Merrill said his son used to sleep until 2 p.m. and stay out all night with his friends after graduating from Sun Valley High School. Then he and his best friend enlisted in the Army, which the father thought was only “a lark.”
But he stuck it out in the infantry and became a non-commissioned officer. He served in Iraq from January 2004 to March 2005, came home in spring 2005 and told his surprised family that he wanted to become a pediatrician.
Merrill said his son always had a soft spot for children and was moved to help them by the horrors he witnessed in Iraq.
His mother, Sue, said Jason told her by telephone from Iraq that he had to watch his back constantly and that even children in Iraq were armed with guns and knives.
But she said he told her, “I look into their deep brown eyes and love them.”
Jason always was the life of the party, the glue that held friendships together, his parents said.
“He loved people. He had nothing bad to say about people. He’d try to lift up people,” said his mother, a teacher’s aide at Johnson Elementary School in Mesa.
Merrill was part of a group of Johnson alumni who visited the school to show students how they could make good in careers.
“They considered him their soldier,” said Pete Thompson, a family friend. “There’s so much negative in this world. This is a young man who tried to be an example.”
Merrill said his son was scheduled to be discharged this month after four years in the Army but was sent back to Iraq on Aug. 15 for a second tour in the war zone and probably would have stayed a year. He said his son was in a Humvee when the explosion hit.
Merrill’s body was returned to the U.S. on Thursday.
He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
When Army Sgt. Jason Merrill returned to Johnson Elementary School in uniform, he seemed to stand a little taller as kindergartners paraded around him waving American flags.
The school now will remember Merrill, who was killed in combat on Sept. 3 in Iraq. Teachers are planning to dedicate a memorial wall in his memory Nov. 9.
“They’re not our kids for just one year. We don’t forget them,” said Jill Tucker, 40, who was Jason’s fifth-grade teacher about 12 years ago. “This has just crushed everyone.”
Kindergarten teacher Susie Shawver, 54, said she will never forget the smile on Merrill’s face as the children paraded around him.
Sometimes, there would be planned assemblies, where parents and others from the east Mesa neighborhood would attend.
Other times, there would be a smaller ceremony. At least once, Merrill showed Tucker’s sixth-grade class a PowerPoint presentation featuring photos from Iraq.
“He was proud of himself and what he had become,” Shawver said. “It helped us teach the children patriotism.”
Services for Merrill, the 72nd soldier from Arizona to die in the Iraq war, are scheduled for 2 p .m. Friday at the Kimball East Stake Center, 4640 E. Holmes Ave., Mesa.
A roadside bomb killed Merrill three weeks after he arrived for his second tour of duty in Iraq. He had served a year in Iraq in 2004 to 2005 as a tank gunner. He was riding in a Humvee when he was killed, said Tim Merrill, his father.
Tracy Yslas, who started this fall as the school’sprincipal, said although she never knew Merrill, she is pressing forward with plans to honor him.
Roberta Diaz, Johnson’s former principal, said Merrill and his contributions will never be forgotten.
“This young man was an honorable and respectful young man. We are so honored we got to know him,” Diaz said. “He exemplified goodness, honor and respect.”
Diaz and the teachers said Johnson has a deep sense of community that included decades of connections with the Merrill family.
Sue Merrill, Jason’s mother, works at Johnson as a teacher’s aide, helping severely handicapped children.
All four Merrill children, including three girls, graduated from the school. By returning to the school five times on breaks, Jason Merrill continued that family tradition.
“He shared his thoughts and his love for the nation,” Diaz said.
Alyssa Merrill, the last of the Merrill children to attend Johnson, is a student in Tucker’s sixth grade. Tucker said the girl’s classmates are making cards and gift bags for the family.
“It was stepping up and letting her know we care about her,” Tucker said.
Shawver said she would remember Jason Merrill as a boy who always wanted to please the teacher.
“I can’t believe he’s not coming back,” she said.
Packages from Home
Faces of the Fallen
Joe Gringo
The Iraq Page
AubreyJ
Echo9er
CrosSwords
November 9th, 2006 at 10:20 am
You site very nice. Thanks owner.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I just wanted Jason’s family to know that we remember him.
Also, he was a member of the 1-77 Armor Battalion. That’s our yellow flag in the background of his photo. He was assigned to Task Force 1-26 when he was killed, but he was still one of us.
Insiste Firmiter
RIP