| Fork Union Military Academy |
Press Release |
|
|
Fork Union Military Academy to honor former cadets who gave their lives in defense of our nation
Two new names added to the FUMA Veterans Memorial Wall this year
Fork Union, VA - November 10, 2008 - The FUMA Corps of Cadets and members of the community and public at large
will gather at
FUMA's Veterans Memorial near the entrance to the campus at 6:30pm on the
evening of November 11, 2008 to honor those who have served and sacrificed for
our nation.
The names of 54
former cadets killed in action while serving in our nation's armed services are
inscribed on the memorial wall. Two of those names, Jonathan K. Dozier and Eric
D. Terhune, were added within the past few weeks as news came of their deaths
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The guest speaker will be Mr. Robert Talbott of the National Ground Intelligence Center. Music will be provided by FUMA's band and members of the chorus. The bagpipers will play as the guests in attendance are invited to come forward and lay flowers at the memorial wall. A 21-gun salute will be fired by the Academy's honor company, the Retan Rifles. The Retan Rifles are named in honor of George Owen Retan, a former cadet who was killed in combat during Operation Market Garden in World War II.
The public is invited to attend this memorial service.
|
Jonathan K. Dozier
Just one week after receiving his promotion to Staff Sergeant, Jonathan Dozier, 30, of Chesapeake, VA was killed in combat during operations in Sinsil in central Iraq on Wednesday January 9, 2008. Dozier attended Fork Union Military Academy as a sophomore in the 1993-1994 academic year.
Dozier, a sniper team leader, was one of six soldiers killed when an improvised explosive device was detonated in a building they had entered during combat operations. The soldiers were assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Vilseck, Germany. Also killed in the blast was an Iraqi interpreter.
Dozier joined the army in 1997, then left the service to attend Middle Tennessee State University, re-enlisting in the army in 2005. He was a sniper team leader and was leading his men searching buildings for insurgents and explosives. House bombs are an ongoing threat in the Diyala province, and the house in which Dozier was killed had been cleared once of explosives just two weeks earlier. Diyala province was also the scene of earlier combat that injured FUMA alumnus SSGT Jonathan Grundy.
The photo below was sent by Dozier to his father a few days before he was killed and is the last known photo of him.
|
Eric D. Terhune
Captain Eric D. Terhune, age 34, had already served two tours of duty in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was on his third tour of duty in the war on terror, this time in Afghanistan where he was serving with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division deployed in the Farah Province of Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Terhune was born to be a Marine, quite literally, at the Quantico Naval Hospital where his father was a member of the Marine Corps, just as Terhune's grandfather had been before him. He attended Fork Union Military Academy during his sophomore year, 1989-1990.
Following high school, Captain Terhune served in the Marine Corps for four years as a non-commissioned officer. After his honorable discharge, Terhune used his GI Bill benefits to finish his education at Morehead State University and then returned to the United States Marine Corps as an officer, earning his wings as a naval aviator flying the CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter. He received three air medals while serving in Iraq in addition to numerous other combat related awards, including the Purple Heart.
Due to an injury that prevented him from flying, Captain Terhune was serving on the ground in Afghanistan as a Forward Air Controller. On June 19, 2008, Captain Terhune and a fellow Marine in his unit were killed during combat operations.
The photo below was taken of Captain Terhune about thirty minutes before the combat operation in which he was mortally wounded.
|
|
| About Fork Union Military Academy
Fork Union Military
Academy in Fork Union, Virginia, is a college preparatory
military boarding school for young men in Grades 6 through 12 and postgraduates.
Affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia and open to those of all religious denominations,
Fork Union was founded in 1898 and has a rich tradition promoting character,
leadership, and scholarship.
|
|
| Fork Union Military Academy
Dan Thompson
Director of Communications
|
|
| |
|
|
