thedrifter
05-13-06, 08:49 AM
Posted on Sat, May. 13, 2006
Second Elmhurst grad killed in Iraq
David Grames-Sanchez, a Marine, was drowned.
By Rob Joesbury and Jennifer L. Boen nsmetro@news-sentinel.com
David Grames-Sanchez, a 2003 Elmhurst High School graduate, was one of four Marines who drowned after their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal Thursday near Baghdad, Iraq.
Monette King, a teacher at Elmhurst, said an assistant principal informed the student body in an announcement about 10 a.m. Friday. King, who has taught family and consumer sciences at the school for 12 years, recalled fond memories of Grames-Sanchez coming into her class on his lunch hour.
“We would sit and chat about life in general, marriage and other things. He was loving and kind and such a gentle soul. Mature beyond his years. It’s a real loss.”
Grames-Sanchez, who was known as David Sanchez in high school, took his father’s name a few years ago, said Fort Wayne Police Sgt. Brian Burton, a friend of the family.
King said Grames-Sanchez, who enlisted immediately after graduation, was between his first and second tours of duty when he married fellow Elmhurst graduate Lindsay Walsh after learning he would be going back.
“His senior year he decided to go into the military,” King said. “He knew that’s what he wanted to do.”
Grames-Sanchez’s death comes just six months after Army Cpl. Jonathan Blair, a member of the class of 2002 at Elmhurst, was killed by a roadside bomb in Bayji, Iraq.
“There we were in December, standing out front (in the school) for the Jonathan Blair procession,” King said.
“Now, here we are again. It’s just too much.”
Physical education teacher Dave McKinnis, who had Grames-Sanchez in his class for two years, corresponded with him regularly while he was overseas.
“I sent him my last e-mail two or two-and-a-half weeks ago. I don’t know if he ever got it.”
Even though Grames-Sanchez transferred from Carroll High School, he was devoted to Elmhurst. Last spring, between his first and second tours of duty, he came back to the school in uniform to visit with teachers, King said. “He looked so handsome. He had a big, bright smile and big, brown eyes.”
Elmhurst principal Barb Gentry said the Grames family will be included in a memorial service already planned for Blair on May 25 at the school.
If the family prefers something before then, Gentry said the school would make the necessary arrangements.
“It’s tough. We have lots of kids who have family, parents over there.” She said crisis counselors were at the school Friday, and they would be there again Monday for anyone who needed them.
Allen County Commissioner Marla Irving, the county’s representative in military affairs, said the commissioners would hold a moment of silence at their meeting Wednesday to remember Grames-Sanchez. “My sympathies go out to the family,” she said.
No information was immediately available on funeral services or when his body would be returned to the United States.
The accident happened Thursday when the Marines, with Regimental Combat Team 5, were traveling in a tank near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar Province.
Many of Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgent groups are based in the area, but the U.S. command said the deaths were not caused by hostile action.
The names of the three other men killed were being withheld pending notification of their relatives, and the accident was under investigation, the military said.
“We are a close-knit family and this loss affects us all,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer of Regimental Combat Team 5.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,434 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ellie
Second Elmhurst grad killed in Iraq
David Grames-Sanchez, a Marine, was drowned.
By Rob Joesbury and Jennifer L. Boen nsmetro@news-sentinel.com
David Grames-Sanchez, a 2003 Elmhurst High School graduate, was one of four Marines who drowned after their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal Thursday near Baghdad, Iraq.
Monette King, a teacher at Elmhurst, said an assistant principal informed the student body in an announcement about 10 a.m. Friday. King, who has taught family and consumer sciences at the school for 12 years, recalled fond memories of Grames-Sanchez coming into her class on his lunch hour.
“We would sit and chat about life in general, marriage and other things. He was loving and kind and such a gentle soul. Mature beyond his years. It’s a real loss.”
Grames-Sanchez, who was known as David Sanchez in high school, took his father’s name a few years ago, said Fort Wayne Police Sgt. Brian Burton, a friend of the family.
King said Grames-Sanchez, who enlisted immediately after graduation, was between his first and second tours of duty when he married fellow Elmhurst graduate Lindsay Walsh after learning he would be going back.
“His senior year he decided to go into the military,” King said. “He knew that’s what he wanted to do.”
Grames-Sanchez’s death comes just six months after Army Cpl. Jonathan Blair, a member of the class of 2002 at Elmhurst, was killed by a roadside bomb in Bayji, Iraq.
“There we were in December, standing out front (in the school) for the Jonathan Blair procession,” King said.
“Now, here we are again. It’s just too much.”
Physical education teacher Dave McKinnis, who had Grames-Sanchez in his class for two years, corresponded with him regularly while he was overseas.
“I sent him my last e-mail two or two-and-a-half weeks ago. I don’t know if he ever got it.”
Even though Grames-Sanchez transferred from Carroll High School, he was devoted to Elmhurst. Last spring, between his first and second tours of duty, he came back to the school in uniform to visit with teachers, King said. “He looked so handsome. He had a big, bright smile and big, brown eyes.”
Elmhurst principal Barb Gentry said the Grames family will be included in a memorial service already planned for Blair on May 25 at the school.
If the family prefers something before then, Gentry said the school would make the necessary arrangements.
“It’s tough. We have lots of kids who have family, parents over there.” She said crisis counselors were at the school Friday, and they would be there again Monday for anyone who needed them.
Allen County Commissioner Marla Irving, the county’s representative in military affairs, said the commissioners would hold a moment of silence at their meeting Wednesday to remember Grames-Sanchez. “My sympathies go out to the family,” she said.
No information was immediately available on funeral services or when his body would be returned to the United States.
The accident happened Thursday when the Marines, with Regimental Combat Team 5, were traveling in a tank near Karmah, 50 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar Province.
Many of Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgent groups are based in the area, but the U.S. command said the deaths were not caused by hostile action.
The names of the three other men killed were being withheld pending notification of their relatives, and the accident was under investigation, the military said.
“We are a close-knit family and this loss affects us all,” said Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commanding officer of Regimental Combat Team 5.
Their deaths raised to at least 2,434 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ellie