Derek A. Calhoun
Profile
Age: 23
From: Oklahoma City
Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas
Incident: Army Spc. Derek A. Calhoun died June 23 in Taji, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Also killed were 1st Lt. Daniel P. Riordan, Sgt. Jimy M. Malone and Sgt. Joel A. House.
Died: June 23, 2007
Funeral held for soldier killed in Iraq
The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — The last of four Oklahoma soldiers killed in Iraq in a three-day span was buried July 3.
Army Spc. Derek Alan Calhoun, 23, a tank driver, died in Baghdad on June 23 after a Humvee in which he was riding struck a bomb.
“Derek was not just another soldier,” Pastor C. Wayne Childers said at funeral services at South Lindsay Baptist Church. “He was one of ours.
“He was a Southside boy.”
Childers said the church’s congregation gave Calhoun a standing ovation after he got his orders for Iraq.
“That’s how much we respected and loved this young man,” he said.
Calhoun is the 62nd service member from Oklahoma to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since the ongoing war on terrorism began in October 2001. Nearly 4,000 Americans service members have died in that...