2 Attachment(s)
RELEASE NUMBER: 060610-01
DATE POSTED: JUNE 10, 2006
Quote:
PRESS RELEASE: Special Forces Soldier killed in Iraq
U.S. Army Special Operations Command
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, June 10, 2006) — An Army Special Forces Soldier died June 8 in Iraq after a roadside bomb exploded next to his vehicle during a combat patrol.
Sgt. 1st Class Daniel B. Crabtree, 31, a Special Forces weapons sergeant, was critically injured in his armored Humvee when an improvised explosive device struck the vehicle near Al Kut, in east-central Iraq. He was evacuated by air after the attack and died en route to a combat support hospital in Baghdad.
An Iraqi interpreter traveling in his vehicle also died following the attack.
Crabtree, originally of Hartville, Ohio, was assigned to the Ohio Army National Guard’s Company B, 2nd Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Columbus, Ohio. He was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and attached to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula.
In civilian life, Crabtree worked as a police officer first in his native Hartville prior to serving with the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department as a member of the Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, unit.
After initially entering military service with the Army Reserve in 1992, Crabtree joined the Army National Guard in 1993 as an administrative specialist. He later retrained as a military policeman and served with the 135th Military Police Company in Brook Park, Ohio. He joined the 19th SFG in March 2002, and in 2003 he was selected to attend the Special Forces Qualification Course at Fort Bragg, N.C.
He earned the coveted green beret when he graduated from the course in May 2004.
Crabtree’s military education also includes the Basic Airborne Course, the Primary Leadership Development Course and the Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course.
His awards and decorations include the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, the Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, the Army Service Ribbon, the Parachutist Badge, and the Special Forces Tab. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, the Iraq Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
Crabtree is survived by his wife, Kathy, and his daughter, Mallory, of the City of Green. He is also survived by his father, Ronald Crabtree and his mother, Judy Ann Crabtree.
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