Funeral Set for Des Moines Army Officer Killed in Iraq

For the second day in a row, Iowans will say goodbye to another soldier with Iowa ties. Maj. Stuart Wolfer, 36, who served in Des Moines from May 1994 to November 1996 with the Army Reserve’s 19th Theatre Army Area Command of Fort Des Moines, was killed Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Wolfer, who was deployed to Iraq in Dec. 2007, died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire. He was assigned to the 11th Battalion, 104th Division of Boise, Idaho. Also killed in the attack was Col. Stephen Scott, 54, of New Market, Ala.

Funeral services, which are open to the community, will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Beth El Jacob Synagogue in Des Moines. Graveside services will directly follow at Glendale Cemetery in the Jewish section.

Wolfer is survived by his wife, Lee Ann, who he met while stationed in Iowa in 1995 and their three daughters: Lillian Wade, 5; Melissa Lacey-Marie, 3; and Isadora Ruth, 1. The Wolfers currently reside in the Emmett, Idaho area

"He was a very loving and amazing father," Lee Anne said in a written statement. "He called his children beautiful, because he said they looked like their mother. He held his family foremost in his life. Stuart was an amazing man and will continue to live on in the hearts of those he touched forever."

Moreover, his wife said that her husband was straightforward, ethical and he stuck to the law. “Stuart was an amazing man and will continue to live on in the hearts of those he touched forever,” Lee Anne said.

An hour before Sunday’s rocket attack on the Green Zone in Baghdad, the Idaho Statesman reports that Wolfer sent an e-mail message back to his manager at Thomson North American Legal in Boise, where Wolfer was employed as a trial lawyer.

"Stu forged strong relationships with just about everyone he encountered," Peter Warwick, president and chief executive officer of Thomson Legal, told the Idaho Statesman Tuesday. "Stu was a wonderful person.”

When he heard the news of Wolfer's death, Warwick sent a message to company employees. In it, he included one of many e-mails Wolfer sent to co-workers:

"The last few weeks have been incredible," Wolfer wrote. "I spent a day visiting the Iraqi Military Academy at Rustamiyah. The flight over started off with me sitting across from a fellow Reuters camera man from Baghdad. We embraced and said hello and then I explained to him that we were on the same team. He let me take a photo with his camera at about 1,000 feet."

Wolfer’s family has requested that donations be made to the “Stuart Wolfer Memorial Fund” at any Wells Fargo bank. The fund has been set up as a college fund for his children.

Wolfer was the 67th person with Iowa ties to die in Iraq and Afghanistan since March 2003.

Map of Iowa's fallen soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003:


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Originally posted on "Iowa Independent"

Culver Orders Flags Flown at Half –Staff to Honor Soldier Killed in Iraq

Gov. Chet Culver has ordered that all flags in the state be flown at half staff from 8 a.m. until sunset on Wednesday, Feb. 27, in honor of Army Spc. Chad Groepper, 21, of Kingsley, who died on Feb. 17 from wounds suffered in Iraq. Funeral services for Groepper will be held at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kingsley-Pierson High School.

Groepper was killed in Diyala Province Iraq when enemy forces attacked his dismounted patrol using small arms fire. He had been serving in Iraq for nearly one year with the 2nd Battalion 23rd Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, based in Fort Lewis, Wash.

Groepper enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2004 from Kingsley-Pierson High School. He leaves behind his wife, Stephanie, and their 4-month-old daughter, Clarissa, who was born just four weeks before he came home on leave last year.

Groepper is also survived by his parents, Darcy and David, and his two sisters, Denae, 26, of Granger, and Abbie, 24, of Kingsley. His unit had been scheduled to return to the United States from Iraq sometime between mid-May and July.

“We had just been counting the days until he came home,” his mother told the Des Moines Register.

Groepper was the 65th person with Iowa ties to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003.

Culver Orders Flags Lowered to Honor Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

Gov. Chet Culver ordered that all flags in the state be flown at half staff on Monday, February 4, 2008, from 8 a.m. (CST) until sunset in honor of Staff Sgt. Robert Miller, 24, of Iowa City who died on January 25th, 2007, from wounds suffered in Afghanistan.

Miller, a native of Harrisburg, Pa., died from wounds he received during enemy small-arms fire during combat operations for Operation Enduring Freedom in Barikowt, Afghanistan. Miller, a Special Forces weapons sergeant was assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

Miller is survived by his parents, Philip and Maureen Miller, brothers Thomas, Martin, and Edward, and sisters Joanna, Mary, Therese, and Patricia, all of Oviedo, Fla.

Miller is the 64th person with ties to Iowa to die from injuries in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003.

Remains of Fallen MIA Vietnam War Pilot Return to Le Mars

Lt. j.g. Norman L. Roggow, who was killed in action Oct. 8, 1967, yet had been missing in action (MIA) for the past 40 years will finally be put to rest next to his parents Friday in Le Mars.

In honor of Roggow’s service and sacrifice, Gov. Chet Culver has ordered all flags in the state to be flown at half staff on Friday, Dec. 14. Services, beginning at 11 a.m., will be held at the Grace Lutheran Church in Le Mars. Surviving members of Roggow’s family will be presented with a POW bracelet, a bronze plaque, a grave marker, the American flag and a videotape of his memorial service.

"It finally gets to the point where all questions to Norman's disappearance have been answered and our family is grateful to now have closure as he finally returns home,” Myron Pingel of Cherokee, a second cousin of Roggow's, told The Sioux City Journal.

The POW/Missing Personnel Office in the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C., announced Oct. 24 that the remains of five servicemen, including Roggow, had been accounted for and would be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Roggow was one of five Navy personnel whose E-1B Tracer plane was reported missing Oct. 8, 1967, while returning to the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany. Records indicate that radar contact with the aircraft was lost approximately ten miles northwest of Da Nang, Vietnam, and adverse weather conditions hampered immediate search efforts.

Three days later, the plane wreckage was located by a search helicopter on the face of a steep mountain in Da Nang Province but the challenging terrain and hostile forces in the area prevented a ground recovery.

Roggow was a member of the Brook Country School class of 1959, the last class to graduate from the rural school located north of Aurelia. He is survived by three sisters, Connie Fraser, Marva Hanson and Diane Roggow, and a brother, Curtis Roggow.

Originally posted on "Iowa Independent"

Culver Orders Flags Lowered to Honor Soldier Killed in Korean War

Cpl. Clem Robert Boody and his family can finally rest in peace.


The Independence native who served with the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, in the Korean War was declared missing in action after heavy fighting near Unsan, North Korea, on Nov. 2, 1950. He was presumed dead on Dec. 31, 1953.

In April, Boody’s remains were positively identified by the Department of Defense as a result of DNA testing. His remains were among the remains of six American soldiers that North Korean military leaders turned over to a delegation led by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

"More than a half-century after Corporal Boody was reported missing in action while fighting for our country, he will finally receive a dignified burial next to his parents in Iowa," Richardson said following a private meeting in Des Moines with Boody’s relatives. "Cpl. Boody made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. I hope his relatives can get some closure after so many years of wondering what happened to their Uncle Clem."

Boody’s will be laid to rest in Independence on Tuesday, Dec. 4, and in honor of his sacrifice, Gov. Chet Culver has ordered all flags in the state to be flown at half-staff on Tuesday.

Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate, has been working on the issue of retrieving remains of soldiers for several years. During the April meeting in Pyongyang, General Ri said Gov. Richardson's involvement was a factor in sending North Korean soldiers to the Unsan region during recent months to look for additional remains. The remains of one soldier had been found in October 2006, and Ri ordered 10 North Korean soldiers to the region to search for more remains, Ri told Gov. Richardson.

In addition to help bring Boody’s remains home to his surviving family, Richardson ensured that Boody’s family finally received the Purple Heart he was awarded 53 years ago. In 1954, the U.S. Army sent a letter to Boody's mother, informing her that her son had been awarded the medal and telling her it would arrive soon. But the medal never came, despite repeated efforts by family members to obtain it over the past 53 years, Boody’s niece Stacey Brewer said at a private ceremony in Des Moines Nov. 5.

"My grandmother never gave up the hope that he would come home someday, because for her, the death was never final,” Brewer said at the ceremony attended by Richardson and 200 other guests in Des Moines. “She just couldn't get her arms around the fact that one of her kids didn't come home. There was no body. There was no goodbye."

In honor of Cpl. Clem Boody, the flag will fly half-staff at the Iowa State Capitol Tuesday, Dec. 4

Originally posted on "Iowa Independent"

Culver Orders Flags Lowered Half-Staff to Honor Fallen Iowa Soldier

Gov. Culver ordered that all flags in the state be flown at half staff on Saturday, Nov. 24 in honor of Army Sgt. Adrian Hike of Sac City who died while serving in Afghanistan on Nov. 12, 2007. Hike’s funeral is set for 9:30 a.m., at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Carroll.

Hike was killed while on patrol in Afghanistan, where he was serving as a paratrooper in Afghanistan. Hike had received a Purple Heart for his service after suffering injuries during a tour in Iraq in 2005. After undergoing several surgeries, Hike returned to active duty before being deployed to Afghanistan.

Hike graduated from Sac City High School and is survived by his mother, father and four brothers. Hike is the 63rd person with Iowa ties to die in Afghanistan or Iraq since March 2003.