William S. Ricketts
Profile
Age: 27
From: Corinth, MS
Assigned to the 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Incident: Army Staff Sgt. William S. Ricketts died Feb. 27 at Bala Murghab, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire
Died: February 27, 2010
Soldier who joined Army after 9/11 dies in Afghanistan
By Holbrook Mohr
The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. — William “Seth” Ricketts wanted to be a soldier ever since he was a little boy, and when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, he joined the Army the next day.
Ricketts was on his fifth tour of duty and looking forward to getting home for the birth of his third child when he was killed Saturday in Afghanistan, his father said.
The 27-year-old staff sergeant from the tiny town of Glen, near Corinth in north Mississippi, was fighting with the 82nd Airborne Division when he died in a battle with insurgents near Bala Murghab, Afghanistan, the Department of Defense and his family said.
“He wanted to be in the military since he was nine years old and had been talking to a recruiter,” said his father, Bill Ricketts. “On Sept. 12 he signed up. He came home and said he was going to protect his county...