Benjamin C. Morton

Sgt. Ben Morton, 24, picked up the nickname Rat in the Army, because he could never throw anything away. If he stood in one place for more than a few minutes, he would eventually be surrounded by refuse. He drove a Humvee for a Stryker brigade based in Ft. Lewis, Wash. his seat was usually covered with food wrappers and containers of all kinds.

He grew up in rural Wright, Kan., and the adoring big brother to two boys and two girls. His mother was a teacher His father worked at an ammonia plant. He played football and ran track and joined the 4-H Club.

He was a few years out of high school, operating a grain elevator, when he joined the Army and trained as a paratrooper and sniper.

His dad, Allen Morton, didn’t talk too much to his son about the war — Ben kept a lot to himself. The one thing his son often told him was that...