
As a teenager, Cody Orr was a typical country boy. He was fond of John Deere ball caps and Western-style belt buckles and loved anything mechanical, said Wayne Nicholson, Orr’s high school auto tech teacher.
“He was a good, solid kid,” Nicholson said. “He’s the kind of kid who would feel like he had an obligation to his country and would say, “I need to do that.’”
Pfc. Orr, 21, of Ruskin, Fla., died Jan. 17 when a roadside bomb detonated north of Baghdad. He was stationed at Fort Hood, Texas. Relatives said Orr was nearing the end of his yearlong duty in Iraq, and was a couple weeks from celebrating his first wedding anniversary. Orr and his wife, Jackie, had three weeks together after their wedding before Orr was shipped overseas.
“He and Jackie...