Michael J Sutter
Profile
Age: 28
From: Tinley Park, Ill.
Assigned to the 745th Ordnance Company, 79th Ordnance Battalion, Army National Guard, based in Grayling, Mich.
Incident: Army Staff Sgt. Michael J. Sutter was killed Dec. 26 by an improvised explosive device that detonated while he was trying to disarm it in Baqubah, Iraq.
Died: December 26, 2003
Staff Sgt. Michael Sutter loved the military, a passion reflected even things he did for fun, like paintball games. “The Army was his life,” said sister-in-law Ann Sutter. Sutter, 28, of Tinley Park, Ill., was killed in Iraq on Dec. 26 while trying to defuse a homemade bomb. He was based in Camp Grayling, Mich.
Military officials told the family that Sutter was using a robot to defuse one bomb, then tried to do the same with another bomb but couldn’t get to it with the robot, Ann Sutter said. He tried to defuse it manually and was a foot away when it exploded, she said.
Sutter served eight years in the Army before joining the National Guard, Ann Sutter said. A graduate of Andrew High School, Sutter was attending Moraine Valley College.
Sutter’s...