Army Sgt. Daniel Michael Shepherd
Death: Aug 15, 2004
of Elyria Ohio; assigned to the 1st Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment 1st Brigade 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) Fort Riley Kan.; killed Aug. 15 when his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in Ramadi Iraq. Ohio soldier killed in Iraq never saw infant son Associated Press ELYRIA Ohio — A soldier from Ohio killed by a homemade bomb in Iraq never got to see his son who friends say looks just like his father. Sgt. Daniel Michael Shepherd23 died Sunday in Ramadi Iraq after his M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle hit a homemade bomb U.S. Army spokeswoman Martha Rudd said. He served with the Army’s 1st Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment and was based in Fort Riley Kan. His unit was due home in less than a month. Shepherd enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school in 2000 and had been stationed at Fort Riley since December 2000. He was deployed in September 2003 . Shepherd was supposed to get out of the military soon and wanted to go to college his grandmother Celia Siek said Monday. After getting the news on Sunday Shepherd’s parents traveled to Fort Riley Kan. to be with their daughter-in-law Kassie and grandson Daniel Siek said. Shepherd’s son was born on St. Patrick’s Day said Jo Ellen Horn whose daughter was visiting Kassie when she got the news of her husband’s death. Daniel looked just like his father Horn said. Shepherd who grew up in Elyria southwest of Cleveland played center and tight-end on the Columbia High School football team Siek said. Shepherd met his wife in high school said Kathy Banyasz the mother of one of his former football teammates. “She missed him terribly and couldn’t wait for him to come home” Banyasz said. Jo Ellen Horn’s son Chris Horn said Shepherd used to give him rides to football practice during the summer. “He seemed like he knew what he wanted to do from the get-go” Horn said. “He said he wanted to be in the military and then when he got out he wanted to become a cop.” Shepherd was the second Fort Riley soldier killed in recent days. On Friday 1st Lt. Neil A. Santoriello24 of Verona Penn. was killed in Khalidiyah when a bomb detonated near his patrol. He was a member of the 1st Battalion 34th Armored also of the 1st Brigade 1st Infantry Division. About 4600 soldiers from Fort Riley are deployed in Iraq. Soldier killed in Iraq laid to rest ELYRIA Ohio — Residents many holding flags or putting a hand over their hearts stood along a 5-mile route from the chapel to the cemetery where a soldier killed in Iraq was buried. Sgt. Daniel M. Shepherd23 was buried with military honors on Saturday in his hometown southwest of Cleveland. He was killed Aug. 15 when his military vehicle was struck by a homemade bomb. He had been scheduled to leave Iraq one week later expecting to see his 6-month-old son for the first time. The infant sometimes asleep and sometimes wide awake spent the day of his father’s funeral cradled in the arms of his weeping mother Kassie. Shepherd planned on coming home to be a police officer said Roger Pace a retired Navy chaplain and minister at Broadview Road Church of Christ in Parma. In his eulogy Pace said Shepherd exemplified a devotion to public service and to the well-being of his fellow soldiers. He called such devotion the real motivator for any fighting force. — Associated Press