Here's tough news: a recent casualty in Iraq had a local connection.
During a hiking trip last year, Chaz Crawford told his father that he didn't feel he had finished the job he set out to do serving his country in the ongoing war on terror in the Middle East.After two tours of duty in Afghanistan as a member of the elite U.S. Army Airborne Rangers, Crawford had left the military and enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a chemical engineering major. But student life didn't suit him, and he felt a pull to return to the war zone.
Chaz Benjamin Crawford, 23, was killed in northern Iraq on March 14, when a suicide bomber attacked the vehicle he was in while he was working for a private security company hired by the U.S. Department of Defense.
"We supported him," father Geoff Crawford said this week. "We support the action over there. It's not that difficult for us to see that he did it for a worthy cause."
Just two days before he died, Crawford, who graduated from Taylor High School in Katy in 2000, sent an e-mail to his family, proudly telling them he had been promoted to team leader.
The young man was among the first troops deployed to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom the month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Last year, Crawford went to Iraq to work as a private security guard for Aegis Defence Services, protecting top U.S. military officers and diplomats.
Related:
• Katy Times - Obituary: Crawford Served in Middle East