United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

A Fort Lewis soldier from Zachary, Louisiana, who "used to come down to Ruston Way to watch the sunset, take pictures, and horse around with his fellow scouts from Arrow Troop, 1st Platoon" was remembered at "a come-as-you-are memorial just for him at the north end of Ruston Way" on Jun. 7, one year and five days after he died at the age of 21 in Iraq, the News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) reported Saturday.[1] -- "[A] mix of [his] old civilian friends and his Army buddies just home from 15 months of combat" recalled Cpl. Jared Crouch's generosity and good humor. -- Cpl. Crouch "was driving the lead vehicle on a mission south of Baqouba when a roadside bomb blew up beneath the truck, barely a month into his deployment. He was the only one killed that day, although a total of 37 soldiers from the 4th Brigade would die during their tour. -- Mike Gilbert had announced the 6:00 p.m. memorial on his blog, FOB Tacoma.[2] -- In an April blog entry, Scott Fontaine of the News Tribune mentioned that Crouch ate "his last meal before deploying to Iraq" at Galloping Gerties in Lakewood.[3] -- BACKGROUND: Cpl. Jared Crouch was killed near Baqubah, an historic city of some 300,000 that lies on the Silk Road from Baghdad to Khorasan Province in Iran. -- His death was apparently part of the so-called "Battle of Baqubah," from March to August 2007; al-Hadid is a western neighborhood of Baqubah. -- According to Wikipedia, "The offensive's forward progression was . . . slowed by the use of deep-buried IEDs, one such attack killing six American soldiers. The house-to-house fighting seen in eastern Baqubah during this offensive was the fiercest fighting in Iraq at the time. Al-Qaida in Iraq was pitching a last effort to retain control of their capital. While clearing of eastern Baqubah was being completed the 5th Battalion 20th Infantry was able to successfully isolate and contain the western half of the city. In early June they called for the assistance of the Brigade command and their sister Battalion the 1-23rd Tomahawks in clearing western Baqubah." -- A year later, Baqubah continues to be afflicted with violence. -- On Monday, Reuters reported that "Three mortar bombs killed one person and wounded two others in a town east of Baquba" and "[a] roadside bomb killed a man driving a tractor just north of Baquba." -- And on Jun. 4, 2008, "[i]n Baquba, 60 kilometers north-east of Baghdad, a bomb went off on a highway as an Iraqi army patrol drove by, killing two soldiers and injuring eight, medical sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. -- Two days after he died, the web site USWarWatch.org said: "Crouch enlisted right out of high school in 2004. When his four-year tour was up, he planned to transfer to the National Guard and study history with an eye toward government service. As it happens, Crouch's younger brother, a reservist, is also stationed in Iraq . . . and will try to accompany his brother's body home." ...

** With candles and shared memories among diverse friends, a Stryker soldier is honored at an informal Tacoma waterfront gathering. **

[PHOTO CAPTION: Danee Currier, 18, of Spanaway helped organize Saturday’s memorial gathering for Cpl. Jared Crouch at the north end of Ruston Way in Tacoma.]

[PHOTO CAPTION: Sgt. Kevin Summerbell, right, and Sgt. Don Cunningham share an emotional moment Saturday as friends gather on Tacoma’s Ruston Way to pay their respects for Cpl. Jared Crouch, a Fort Lewis soldier who was killed a year ago in Iraq.]

There was no 21-gun salute, no chaplain giving a message of God’s provision, no bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace.”

The formal benedictions for Cpl. Jared Crouch were taken care of a year ago at a joint Fort Lewis memorial service for three soldiers. The Stryker cavalryman was killed June 2, 2007, while serving in Iraq with the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Instead, on Saturday evening, Crouch was honored with a come-as-you-are memorial just for him at the north end of Ruston Way in Tacoma.

There was a diaper box full of candles, a grocery bag stuffed with handheld U.S. flags, and a diverse circle of mourners -- a mix of Crouch’s old civilian friends and his Army buddies just home from 15 months of combat.

Over here, his old friends with assorted piercings, dyed hair, mohawk, and chains remembered their 21-year-old friend as a free spirit. Crouch was hooked on anime, loved pizza and drove a Ford Taurus with a duct-taped bumper.

“He was my very, very dear friend. And when he died, it hurt so bad I had to do something about it,” said Michelle Zentner of Spanaway, who organized the memorial with her sister Danee Currier.

Over there, his fellow 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment scouts with their close-cropped hair remembered Crouch as a brother and a soldier.

“He did his job, he did what a lot of people wouldn’t have done,” said an emotional Sgt. Don Cunningham. “He gave his life for a purpose.”

He was driving the lead vehicle on a mission south of Baqouba when a roadside bomb blew up beneath the truck, barely a month into his deployment. He was the only one killed that day, although a total of 37 soldiers from the 4th Brigade would die during their tour.

Staff Sgt. Sergio Partida, the vehicle commander, had his ribs bruised in the blast. Spc. Eric Garcia took shrapnel to his face, which blinded him for a month, and he was evacuated to Baghdad.

The choice of settings was meaningful. Crouch used to come down to Ruston Way to watch the sunset, take pictures, and horse around with his fellow scouts from Arrow Troop, 1st Platoon.

“He loved the waterfront. He loved Ruston Way,” said his friend Patricia Eaton of SeaTac. She described Crouch as her “rock and shoulder to lean on.”

Not far from the mourners, families played on the beach. A stretch limo glided by with teens on their prom night peeking out the window. A BNSF freight train passed and forced the quiet group to grow quieter still.

None of this detracted from a chance to look back fondly on the young man from Zachary, La., who made friends of all types after being assigned to Fort Lewis in 2005.

“I remember the time we talked Jared into doing the ‘Thriller’ dance,” Garcia said. “It was a real crappy week, and everyone was miserable. But he found a way to make us smile, the way he always would.

Friends of Cpl. Jared Crouch will gather at the end of Ruston Way at 6 o'clock Saturday night to remember the soldier who died just over a year ago in Iraq.

Crouch, 21, of Zachary, La., was killed June 2, 2007 when a bomb struck his vehicle in Hadid. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, part of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

Friend Danee Currier said soldiers from Crouch's platoon returned home this week and will join his Tacoma friends in the remembrance Saturday night. She said they'll plant flags and light candles at the northern end of the waterfront drive, before it heads into the Asarco site and into the Ruston Tunnel.

Eric Salinas used to sit at the counter at Galloping Gerties Restaurant almost every morning. The Lakewood restaurant’s staff called him “Mr. Hot Sauce” because the Army specialist dumped so much of the red stuff on his omelet.

Gerties owner Susan Rothwell learned of Salinas’ death from a roadside bomb blast in Baghdad in August 2007 in the newspaper.

William Jared Crouch visited the restaurant for his last meal before deploying to Iraq. He died in Al Hadid in June 2007, another victim from a roadside bomb. The next month, she struck up a conversation with a group who had dropped in for lunch. It was Crouch’s family. They were eating at Gerties before attending his memorial service at Fort Lewis.

“They told me that their son loved to eat here and they thanked me,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to say. I should be thanking them.”

The deaths -- and every other death of Fort Lewis soldiers, coalition troops, and Iraqi civilians -- reaffirmed Rothwell’s belief that the invasion in Iraq was a mistake and that President Bush bungled the war.