Wilbert Davis
Profile
Age: 40
From: Tampa, Fla.
Assigned to 3rd Battalion, 69th Armor, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
Incident: Army Staff Sgt. Wilbert Davis was killed in a vehicle accident in central Iraq.
Died: April 03, 2003
The Army and Wilbert Davis were a perfect match. “He was just meticulous in everything he did,” said his mother, Willie Mae Lane. A brother, Robert, said, “Wilbert didn’t believe in mistakes.”
Davis, 40, and journalist Michael Kelly died April 3 when their Humvee went into a canal near Baghdad. Davis had served in the Middle East several times and “probably knew his way around pretty well,” his brother said.
Wilbert Davis was one of eight children. His father died when he was 3, and his mother raised the family on her own. They lived in a public housing project in Tampa. “We were as poor as you could be,” his brother said.
Davis excelled at sports. At age 13, he was a pitcher for the Belmont Heights Little League, which produced such baseball...