Rest in Peace, Trevor

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/10/gns_afghan_kia_102908w/

Whoa. I just read about this in Navy Times today, and it definitely personalizes the conventional wisdom about Afghanistan becoming increasingly dangerous for coalition servicemembers.

Trevor Yurista was the Regimental S-2A (that's the assistant intelligence officer for the regiment, which oversees several battalions) for Regimental Combat Team 5, based at Camp Fallujah, for all of 2006. He had the entire AO (Area of Operations) mapped out like the back of his hand after putting in a year's worth of 18-hour days working on a Major's staff...and was fighting like mad to get sent back to Anbar to work on a MITT (Military Interim Transition Team) just a few month's after re-deploying.

I hadn't spoken to him since early 2007 when RCT-5 and RCT-6 turned over, and had no idea he was even in Afghanistan until I saw the picture and short blurb in print today. From the article, I learned that he volunteered to head over to OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) to be with some of the intel guys he had trained back in the schoolhouse in Dam Neck, VA.

I wasn't surprised to read that.

This country is lucky to have people like Lt. Yurista.