Wednesday Hero 10/1/08
Posted by: Blue Collar Muse in America First, Homeland Security, Terrorism, US Military, War on Terror, Wednesday HeroThis Week’s Post Was Suggested And Written By Kathi
44 years old from Webster New York
401st Civil Affairs Battalion
September 1, 2008
SSGT Renee A. Deville was an Army Reservist who deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 401st Civil Affairs Battalion from Webster, N.Y. She arrived at Walter Reed August 10, 2006, after being injured in a mortar attack.While at Walter Reed, Deville was assigned to Chosen Battery, Warrior Transition Brigade, and was among three graduates of the Army’s first Basic Noncommissioned Officers Course Stand Alone Common Core offered to Warriors in Transition.
Deville, who successfully completed every aspect of the course from a wheelchair, was lauded by SGT Major of the Army Kenneth O. Preston as exemplifying the Army’s ‘Warrior Ethos’, at the graduation ceremony for the course on March 28, 2008.
Deville was also the impetus for a new playground being built behind the Mologne House at Walter Reed in 2007.
An October 2007 Washington Post article about the opening of the playground says that SSGT Deville’s mention of her children’s limited recreational options to Col. Bruce Haselden, the garrison commander, helped set in motion the playground project.
Staff Sgt. Renee Antoinette Deville died September 1, 2008 in her room at the Mologne House at Walter Reed. She was 44.
She is survived by her husband and 4 children, her mother, a brother, and two sisters.
SSGT Deville was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on September 19, 2008.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People LivedThis post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
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Tags: , 401st Civil Affairs Battalion, SSgt. Renee A Deville, US Army, Wednesday Hero
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October 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 am
Thank you SSGT Renee A. Deville for your courage, selflessness, and ultimately your sacrifice. Our brave men and woman deserve and need our support. As some would have you erroneously believe, SSGT Renee A. Deville and others like her have not died in vain. They sacrificed their lives so that we can continue to enjoy and prosper under the freedoms we all sometimes take for granted.