Kendall Thomas

Kendall Thomas wanted to make sure things were done right. He couldn't pass a piece of trash without picking it up and disposing of it properly, and he adhered to a strict military philosophy: "If there's a problem, fix it." "He made changes in my life by his actions and by the way he did things," said Jerome Scott, a fellow staff sergeant. "I will always remember him as a friend and as someone I could talk to." Thomas, a 36-year-old native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, died April 28 in Baghdad in a vehicle accident. He was based at Fort Hood, Texas. Thomas was in his 17th year of Army service. He met his wife, Staff Sgt. Pamela Thomas, in 1997 and they married five years later. "He was a soldier. But more important, he was...