IMMEDIATE RELEASE

No. 997-09 December 22, 2009

DOD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Sgt. Albert D. Ware, 27, of Chicago, Ill., died Dec. 18 in Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 782nd Combat Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.

For more information the media may contact the 82nd Airborne Division public affairs office at 910-432-0661 or 910-432-0662.

“Into thine hand I commit my spirit.” Michael Yon has been reporting from Afghanistan for six years. On New Year’s Eve, he made this report from a location 5 miles northwest of Kandahar.

Jason Johnson would die 8 miles west of Kandahar a week after Albert. Jason McLeod of Crystal Lake, Illinois died 18 miles west of Kandahar a month before Albert. On December 18^th Albert died just north of Kandahar. The good news is that they caught the guy:

…was about three-tenths of a mile from where a bomb detonated last week, killing Sgt. Albert D. Ware, 27, of Chicago, a soldier in the 4th Brigade's 782nd Combat Support Battalion.

Soldiers saw a man fleeing from the area after the explosion and followed him into the village. An infrared beam from an A-10 airplane watching overhead led them directly to the suspect*, who was captured.

* This is the very first war ever in which an enemy combatant can kill an American on the battlefield and then be described by the American press as a “suspect”.

The story above was published by the Fayetteville Observer on Dec 23, 2009. The last issue of the South End Reporter (published weekly and previously call the Weekly Reporter) was published on Christmas Day, 1968. The Pullman Virtual Museum republished a photo from that paper that was taken on May 21, 1950:

It is now 59 years and 7 months since that dedication. The monument has been updated for Korea and Vietnam, but it is still there in front of the George M. Pullman public elementary school. I imagine that this is the school that Albert’s children attend. There is a fence around the property with a gate at the main entrance. The monument is centered in the opening of the gate.

I made the trip because a Sun-Times story said that monument would be updated for Albert. A Tribune story tells of his escape from civil war-torn Liberia. Albert was 2 when his father left for America. Albert was 12 before his father could arrange for him to follow. Legal immigrants face long delays.

In spite of that missing decade, Albert’s father was a strong influence during his high school and college years. He was a good student and a good athlete. He joined the National Guard and transferred to the regular army. He qualified for the elite 82^nd Airborne Division and deployed for 15 months to Afghanistan. He wanted to qualify as an Army Ranger and deployed a second time to Afghanistan. His father put his fist through his front window last Friday when he was told of his son’s death.

This Friday will be Christmas. I had noticed a flag on Highway 41 across from the Chicago Botanic Gardens. On my return trip I got this:

This Christmas, after 8 years in Afghanistan and as we are about to increase our troop level there by 30 thousand, it would be well to reflect on the fact that it is often the newest Americans who most courageously demonstrate their love for America.

Courageous Americans like Albert Ware, Sergeant, Foxtrot Company, 2^nd Battalion, 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, assigned to 782^nd Brigade Support Battalion, 4^th Brigade Combat Team, 82^nd Airborne Division, United States Army.

Funeral photos:

Red, white & blue.

You can’t see his blue.

Albert was one of his.

Girl.

Sometimes governors wait their turn in line.

The more I am around our frontline soldiers, the more I admire them.

These young paratroopers face grim realities of war that most Americans prefer not to think about.

As Albert did in Afghanistan, these fine warriors acquitted themselves with dignity and grace.

The piper and the dancer.

I love this photo.

They told me they love this duty.

Major General Daniel B. Allyn deployed for three tours with the 75^th Ranger Regiment, two tours with the 82^nd Airborne Division, once as commander of 3^rd Brigade Combat Team, 3^rd Infantry Division and most recently for 15 months as Chief of Staff for the Multi-National Corps – Iraq. And then, this cold afternoon, he got down on one knee before the father and the wife of a Liberian immigrant to our country and presented them both with folded American flags.

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