James M Kiehl
Profile
Age: 22
From: Comfort, Texas
Assigned to 507th Maintenance Company, Fort Bliss, Texas
Incident: Army Spc. James M. Kiehl was killed in an ambush near Nasiriyah, Iraq.
Died: March 23, 2003
James Kiehl always told his wife to “just think the best.” Jill Kiehl, 20, said he was a natural optimist.
They were an odd couple. She: short, serious and a natural pessimist. He: tall, “goofy” and a sunny outlook.
They met in the military and were married barely more than a year. Their first child is due this month. She’s staying with her parents in Des Moines.
Kiehl’s parents in Comfort, Texas, had taken heart from a phone call from a friend of their son, who told them Kiehl had been baptized in Qatar before heading to the battlefield.
A computer repair technician, Kiehl was a member of his high school’s basketball team and marching band.
Jill Kiehl, meanwhile, was clinging to a white teddy bear he gave her before he left. Kiehl bought a stuffed bear for his unborn son, too — one with a small digital recorder so he could hear his daddy’s voice.
— USA Today and The Associated Press