Dennis J. Hansen
Profile
Age: 31
From: Panama City, FL
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Incident: Army Staff Sgt. Dennis J. Hansen died Dec. 5, at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit on Dec. 3 with an improvised explosive device in Logar province, Afghanistan
Died: December 05, 2009
Served with Corps before joining Army
The Associated Press
Dennis Hansen was determined to dunk a basketball when he was a boy, so he plotted the perfect strategy: Set up a ladder to slam that ball through the hoop.
He made the shot, but there was just one problem: He didn’t plan for what would happen after the dunk, so his landing was a bit rough, Pastor Barry Baughman recalled at Hansen’s funeral. But that desire to excel is something Hansen carried throughout life, Baughman said.
Hansen, 31, of Panama City, Fla., died Dec. 7 at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, of wounds sustained from a roadside bomb four days earlier in Logar province, Afghanistan. He had served 8½ years in the Marine Corps before joining the Army and had previously served in Africa, Kosovo, Japan, Panama, Cuba and Iraq, as well as two tours in Afghanistan.
Hansen was assigned to Fort Drum, N.Y., and lived in Scottsville, N.Y., with his wife, Jennifer,...