Tribute to fallen soldiers.

[voyager35]

RIP Michael Gonzalez, prayers and thoughts to the family.


U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 729-08
August 29, 2008

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Specialist Michael L. Gonzalez, 20, of Spotswood, New Jersey, died August 28, 2008, in Baghdad, of wounds suffered by an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 340th Military Police Company, Fort Totten, New York.

For more information media may contact the Fort Monmouth public affairs office at (732) 532-1258; after hours (732) 371-2901.
Services this weekend for Spotswood soldier killed in Iraq
by Carly Rothman
Courtesy of the New Jersey The Star-Ledger
Wednesday September 03, 2008
Funeral services will be held Saturday morning for a 20-year-old Army reservist from Spotswood who was killed last month in Iraq.
U.S. Army Specialist Michael Gonzalez, a member of the military police, died August 28, 2008, in Baghdad from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device.

Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at The Brunswick Memorial Home, 454 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Spotswood Reformed Church, 429 Main Street, Spotswood. Gonzalez's cremated remains will be entombed at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, with full military honors on September 10, 2008.
Memorial contributions may be made to the US Adopt a Soldier program, 7440 South Blackhawk Street, Suite 15-106, Englewood, Colorado 80112, or online at adoptaussoldier.org, or to any local food bank or blood bank.
Gonzalez, a 2006 graduate of Spotswood High School, was assigned to the 18th Military Police Brigade, 95th Military Police Battalion, of the 340th Military Police Company. His home unit was the 430th Military Police Detachment in Red Bank.
Gonzalez is at least the 102nd member of the armed services with ties to New Jersey to die in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He is survived by his parents, Pedro and Ida Leiby Gonzalez; his brother, Troy; his paternal grandparents, Maria and Alberto Gonzalez; his cousin, Jonathan Nourse; and his girlfriend Tiffany Loving. He was predeceased by his maternal grandparents, John B. and Lillian Leiby.

[Fisterfam]

I am very proud of this forum for setting up a thread such as this one. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mike Nashif and I am a SSG in the US Army stationed at Ft. Hood in Texas. My wife and I are also founders of the website www.takeasoldierfishing.com and the Combat Warrior Crisis Network. Right now our main efforts are our website and getting service members out on the water but we hope to expand to marriage counseling and retreats for deployed service members and individual counseling for service members. We are a faith based organization but we are non denominational in nature.

Having lost 11 close friends of mine in 2 deployments I know that these families fall thru the cracks and eventually become forgotten. This is a great way to pay tribute to those that we have lost, new or past. Young or old. These great men and women are part of the 6% of the American population that have ever raised their right hand to defend this great nation. Remember, Freedom Isn't Free - takeasoldierfishing.com