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A pledge to never open son's will is shattered

May-25-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Mother left to honor wishes of Fort Lewis soldier killed in Iraq

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By MIKE BARBER, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

In a January meeting at Fort Lewis, a month after the deadliest attack upon Stryker Brigade soldiers in Iraq claimed six of them in a suicide bombing, 24-year-old 1st Lt. Aaron Seesan stood up and volunteered to help replace the dead.

Seesan reasoned that the only other person of his rank who might go had a wife and kids, Seesan's mother recalled last night. Also, his going provided a chance to rejoin a unit he belonged to until shortly before it was deployed to Iraq last October.

"I had an opportunity to visit Aaron at Fort Lewis in January before he left for Iraq," his mother, Chiquita, said from the family's home in Massillon, Ohio, yesterday. "I think Aaron tried to prepare me."

Her son was adamant that they not dwell on packing his belongings but enjoy their time together, take in such sites as the Seattle Art Museum and just talk.

During a drive to see the Hoh rain forest, "we talked about his last will and testament, and he wanted my input. It was a very casual conversation. He gave me a copy before I left to go home. I put it in the cupboard here and decided I was never going to look at it again," the soldier's mother said.

Last Sunday, she retrieved it. An Army chaplain arrived at the family's home to tell her and her husband, Thomas, that their son was among the three Stryker soldiers killed in Iraq early Sunday. [...]

Seesan and Spc. Tyler Creamean both died in the same roadside bomb attack while riding in a vehicle. Both were members of the brigade's 73rd Engineer Company.

Sgt. Benjamin C. Morton, 24, of Wright, Kan., a member of the brigade's 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, died in a separate incident in Mosul. He was shot and killed during a house-to-house search.

Creamean's wife, KaMisha, confirmed her husband's death on the Stryker Brigade News Web site, a clearinghouse for information and a support network for families.

"It's still a shock to me as well as the family, but we are doing good. Please keep the rest of his unit in your prayers because I am more worried about the guys. It will take time, but we will get through it,' she wrote.

"I love you today, tomorrow and the days to come," she wrote to her husband.

Last night, the Defense Department confirmed the deaths of Seesan and Creamean, 21, of Jacksonville, Ark.

Creamean was killed immediately in the explosion. Seesan, burned over 80 percent of his body, clung to life as he was airlifted to Landstuhl Army Medical Center in Germany. [...]


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