John F. Thomas
Profile
Age: 33
From: Valdosta, Ga.
Assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard, Albany, Ga.
Incident: Army Sgt. John F. Thomas was killed July 24 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee while he was on patrol in Baghdad. Also
Died: July 24, 2005
Ga. Guardsmen – and best friends – killed in Iraq
By Elliott Minor
Associated Press
VALDOSTA, Ga. — Ronnie “Rod” Shelley and John Thomas became best friends in the Georgia Army National Guard.
They both were ex-Marines, both about the same age, and both enjoyed searching for arrowheads and fishing together. And when their infantry unit was sent to Iraq in May, they went to war together.
In two roadside bomb blasts separated by only six days, they were among eight Georgia citizen-soldiers — all members of the same battalion — who became the Georgia Guard’s first combat casualties since World War II.
As of late Tuesday, the National Guard had not released the identities of the four soldiers killed Saturday in the latest bombing. But family members and employers identified them as Shelley, 34, of Valdosta Sgt. 1st Class Victor Anderson, 39, of Ellaville Sgt. David R. Jones, 45, of Augusta and Spc. Jonathon Haggin, 26,...