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BEND SOLDIER REMEMBERED AS SOMEONE 'YOU COULDN'T HELP BUT LOVE'
By Sheila G. Miller

Bulletin (Bend, OR)
May 14, 2008

http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080514/NEWS0107/805140405

[PHOTO CAPTION: According to a friend, Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis “loved what she was doing” in Iraq, where she worked as a medic.]

The Central Oregonian killed Sunday in Iraq was described by those who knew her as a friendly young woman who worked hard and always had a smile on her face.

Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis, 24, was killed Sunday when a vehicle she was riding in was hit by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad. She was an Army health care specialist serving her second deployment in Iraq, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). She is the second female Oregonian and fifth Central Oregonian killed since the war started in 2003.

Ellis graduated from Lakeview High School in 2002 and was a student at Central Oregon Community College in Bend for two years before enlisting in the Army in September 2004.

Bob Nash, the principal at Lakeview High School, was the vice principal when Ellis attended the school.

“The thing that really stands out is how incredibly friendly she was,” Nash said. “She was friends with everybody in the school.”

“The typical barriers that separate certain types of people did not have any impact on her. . . . Whether they were a good student, a bad student, a top-notch athlete, she got on very well with everybody.”

Ellis is survived by a brother, Cameron Ellis, and his wife, Irena, who live in San Francisco, and by a sister, Amanda Ellis, of Corvallis, said Judy Wing, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest’s public affairs officer.

Both are with their parents now, Wing said, noting no date has yet been set for Ellis’ memorial service.

In 2003, her parents moved to Baker City, where her father, Steve, works as the forest supervisor of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. Her mother, Linda, works as a family nurse practitioner for Eastern Oregon Medical Associates.

Ellis’ family could not be reached for comment.

'A MARVELOUS YOUNG LADY'

Bobbie Steninger, who coached Ellis in track and field as well as cross country, said Ellis was a supportive team member.

“You could always count on her,” Steninger said. “Some people are good in a wide variety of ways, and she was the kind of person who always had a smile on her face.”

Ellis ran distance events for the high school and served as an inspiration for her teammates.

“She was just a marvelous young lady who worked very, very hard,” Steninger said. “She was the kid you couldn’t help but love.”

Jan Rekow, whose daughter Corri was close friends with Ellis and who ran cross country with her, said Ellis was always polite and well-mannered, referring to her friends’ parents as Mr. and Mrs. Rekow, and saying please and thank you.

“I remember a time when her dad commented on how she was a low-maintenance child,” Rekow said. “She never gave her parents any trouble.”

But she was adventurous and hardworking, too.

“She was a gutsy little gal. She was never afraid to try anything,” Rekow said. “I remember a time when she was applying for a fire crew position, and every day I would see her running up and down the road to get in shape and get ready for fire season.”

According to Nash, she was also a solid student.

“She was a very motivated student who worked very hard,” he said, his voice breaking. “She was a typical, bright cheerful kid. And it’s a terrible thing.”

From fall 2002 until spring 2004, Ellis studied at Central Oregon Community College, taking mostly general education classes but majoring in education. She didn’t earn a degree.

DEPLOYED TO IRAQ

Ellis entered the Army in September 2004, and was stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky., beginning in May 2005.

She won numerous awards and decorations, including an Army Commendation Medal and medals for good conduct and terrorism service.

A health care specialist, Ellis was first deployed to Iraq in October 2005. She returned in September 2006 but was sent back to the region a year later, in October 2007. Ellis was in the midst of a 15-month deployment.

Army health care specialists provide basic and emergency medical treatment when an Army physician isn’t available.

Among their main duties is providing emergency medical treatment to casualties on the battlefield, although they also provide basic care by interviewing patients, taking their temperatures and preparing blood samples for the laboratory.

Rekow said her daughter Corri last spoke with Ellis while she was on leave from her first tour in Iraq.

“She indicated to Corri that she truly loved serving her country as a medic,” Rekow said. “She loved what she was doing.”

Linda Conroy, who taught Ellis to dance at the Lakeview School of Dance, said she was a hard worker.

Ellis and her sister, Amanda, took jazz, tap, and ballet classes at the studio from the time they moved to Lakeview in 1997 until Ellis graduated from high school.

“She was a joy,” Conroy said. “She was always helping, and she was just part of the group, a team player.”

That’s one of the reasons Conroy wasn’t surprised to hear about Ellis’ service in the Army.

“She was always a person who liked to help people, so I would imagine that would be a field that she would take to liking. That would be a way she could help people.”

--Sheila G. Miller can be reached at 617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com. This story contains information from WesCom News Service.