Branden F Oberleitner
Profile
Age: 20
From: Worthington, Ohio
Assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, Fort Campbell, Ky.
Incident: Army Pfc. Branden F. Oberleitner was killed by a rifle-fired grenade in Fallujah, Iraq, as he returned from a dismounted patrol.
Died: June 05, 2003
Branden F. Oberleitner, of the Columbus suburb of Worthington, Ohio, felt compelled to join the military after the Sept. 11 attacks, friends said. He was killed June 5 in Fallujah, Iraq, when his unit was fired on by a rifle-propelled grenade.
Oberleitner was passionate about military service, said Kevin Earhart, who worked with Oberleitner at a gasoline station before he enlisted. “That’s all he wanted to do,” he said.
Oberleitner was a 2001 graduate of Thomas Worthington High School. He took classes to prepare for a firefighting career at a vocational school in Delaware, Ohio, his junior and senior years.
Friends say he was always tinkering with cars, and for years seemed to be working on the same car in his driveway. Friend and classmate...