Published: December 28, 2006 09:44 am            

Indiana soldier dies in Iraq

LEBANON, Ind. — Joseph “Joey” Allen Strong wanted to join the Marines when he was 17.

It was just after 9/11, and U.S. Marine Corps recruiters had just visited Western Boone Jr.-Sr. High School, where Strong was a student.

“They came to the house with paperwork and I would not sign,” Strong’s mother, Terri Batts, said in a telephone interview Wednesday from her rural Lebanon home. “I got mad. He waited a couple of years, and then said he wanted to go into the Army.”

Strong, 21, was named Joseph Allen Leonard for his father and two grandfathers, she said. “His grandpa Strong was in the Army; that’s what persuaded him,” she said. That grandfather died when Strong was a senior at Western Boone.

After graduating from Western Boone in 2003, where he played baseball — “he just loved everything about it,” Mrs. Batts said — Strong enlisted in the U.S. Army’s airborne infantry.

“He loved the military,” she said. “He thought it was great. He wanted to go to Iraq.”

On Jan. 7, while based at Fort Richardson, Ak., Strong was promoted to private first class.

On Oct. 4, with a promotion to specialist, Strong was sent to Iraq, assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, of the 25th Infantry Division.

On Tuesday, Strong died after his HUMVEE overturned in a ditch near Forward Operating Base Kalsu, about 50 miles south of Baghdad.

He is the first Boone County resident to be killed in the Iraq War.

Strong died two days after 41 soldiers of Charlie Battery, 2nd Battalion, 150th Field Artillery, based in Lebanon, Ind., were re-united with their families after spending most of the year in Iraq. While one soldier assigned to the 2/150th was killed in action, none of the Lebanon soldiers were injured.

A news release from Headquarters, United States Central Command, said the HUMVEE rolled over along a dirt canal during a combat reconnaissance mission. The cause of the HUMVEE’s crash is still under investigation.

Strong survived the accident, but died en route to a hospital, his mother said.

A second soldier in the HUMVEE died of injuries Wednesday, Central Command reported.

“In the past month,” Central Command said, “while conducting patrols in the same area, the unit involved in this incident has found multiple roadside bombs, disabling the terrorists’ ability to disrupt operations of the Iraqi Army and coalition forces.”

An official announcement from the Department of Defense identifying the victims wasn’t expected until late Wednesday.

“I just got a call from Fort Knox,” Mrs. Batts said about 4:30 p.m. “They wait 24 hours after notifying the parents” before releasing a soldier’s identity to the media. Strong’s sister, Vanesa Caldwell, 22, notified Strong’s father, Allen Strong, of rural Lebanon.

Military authorities told her they would give her more information as it was learned, said Mrs. Batts, who, along with her husband, Tracy, operate Batts Trucking .

Strong played baseball at Western Boone; he was a pitcher and catcher. The unusual combination occurred because, when he was a junior, the Stars were loaded with pitchers, his mother said. He started pitching in Little League and continued through his school years.

“He just loved to play,” Mrs. Batts said. “It was in his blood.”

The coordination he developed through pitching helped him earn marksmanship and sharpshooting medals. “He won several awards at Fort Richardson,” Mrs. Batts said.

Strong joined the army because he wanted to be a police officer, she said. “He wanted the discipline the army would give him.” While at WeBo, he attended criminal justice classes at the J. Everett Light Academy in Indianapolis. He hoped to join the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, she said.

Fishing and riding a three-wheeler were his other hobbies, she said.

Word of Strong’s death quickly reached all those that had known him.

Don Jackson, Western Boone High School guidance counselor and former baseball coach, said the news left him ill.

“He’s a great young man,” Jackson said. “It made me sick to hear this news.”

Jackson, who coached Strong in baseball his freshman through junior years in high school, said he will always remember him as a terrific athlete and a great person to know and be around.

“He was a great young man and loved baseball,” he said. “He was very humble. He always wanted to please.”

Merv McNair, pastor of Lebanon Lighthouse Baptist Church, said he too was greatly saddened by the news and remembers Strong fondly as a caring person with a great sense of humor.

“He was a man of good character,” McNair said. “He was an easygoing man who liked to have fun. He was a likable man; I really loved him.”

Strong’s ex-girlfriend Kayla Warmoth said she was taking the news hard. She said she always thought of Strong fondly as a wonderful, caring man.

“He was an energetic man, so full of life,” an emotional Warmoth said. “He was just a great person. Someone that would have done anything for you.”



Rod Rose writes for The Lebanon (Ind.) Reporter.

        

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