David J. Babineau
Profile
Age: 25
From: Springfield, Mass.
Assigned to 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.
Incident: Army Spc. David J. Babineau was killed June 16 while manning a checkpoint when he came under enemy small-arms fire in Baghdad.
Died: June 16, 2006
Mass. soldier dreamed of becoming five-star general
By Adam Gorlick
Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — When members of his 1998 high school class wrote their so-called “last will and testament,” David Babineau predicted he’d be at their 20-year reunion as a five-star general.
Babineau always wanted to serve his country and enlisted in the Army after graduating from Springfield High School of Science and Technology, his mother said.
But his dream of five stars ended Friday when the specialist was killed at a checkpoint in Yusufiyah, outside Baghdad, Iraq. Two of his comrades from the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., were abducted in the attack.
“He was supposed to be home in May,” his mother, Dawn Babineau, said outside her home Monday. Instead, he was extended for a second tour of duty, she said.
News of Babineau’s death shocked those who knew him as a friendly student at the...