Stephen C. Kennedy
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Age: 35
From: Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Assigned to the 1st Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Tennessee Army National Guard, Lenoir City, Tenn.
Incident: Army Sgt. 1st Class Stephen C. Kennedy was killed April 4 when his patrol was attacked by enemy forces using small-arms fire in Balad Ruz, Iraq. Also
Died: April 04, 2005
Tennessee soldier killed in Iraq
By Duncan Mansfield
Associated Press
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — A “Happy Birthday” balloon waved in the breeze above a mailbox covered in flowers outside Staff Sgt. Stephen C. Kennedy’s modest home Wednesday. Inside, his family mourned his death in Iraq.
Kennedy was the second member of the Knoxville-based 278th National Guard Regimental Combat Team to die in Iraq since the 3,200-man unit arrived in November. He was killed Monday in fierce fighting at an insurgent base south of Balad Ruz.
He would have turned 36 on Wednesday.
A chaplain and military escort arrived at his family’s doorstep Monday night to inform his wife, Tiffany, and their four children, some from a previous marriage. “The only words that went through my mind were, ‘Oh, God, why Stephen?”’ she said Wednesday.
Her voice cracked as she talked about her husband of nearly four years.
“Whether he had this...