Tuesday, June 20 2006 @ 02:14 AM EDT
Contributed by: River97
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 www.boston.com -- As a senior at Springfield High School of Science and Technology in 1998, David J. Babineau wrote to his classmates he wanted to be a five-star general. Before the summer was out, he had joined the Army. And by December, he was assigned to Fort Campbell, Ky., home of the famed 101st Airborne Division.
On Friday, Specialist Babineau was killed in an ambush at a traffic checkpoint south of Baghdad . The 25-year-old Springfield native was with the two US soldiers who were apparently kidnapped by insurgents.
The soldiers remained missing yesterday.
``He always talked about being in the service," said Hunter Short, a vice principal at the school.
``He was excellent in the classroom, always focused, on time, always got his assignments in. Just a pleasure," he said.
Babineau leaves a wife, Rondi; two sons, ages 2 and 4; and a daughter, 8. He had been scheduled to leave Iraq in May, but had his tour of duty extended, according to his mother, Dawn of Springfield.
``He wanted to make a career out of the Army," she said.
At least 38 servicemen from Massachusetts have been killed in the Iraq war.
A farmer who said he witnessed the attack reported that Babineau died when seven masked assailants, including one with a heavy machine gun, ambushed the soldiers' Humvee in Yusufiyah, a heavily Sunni area about 12 miles southwest of Baghdad. The two missing servicemen are Private First Class Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. All three soldiers were assigned to Company B, First Battalion, 502d Infantry Regiment of the division's Second Brigade Combat Team.
An umbrella group that includes Al Qaeda in Iraq said in a statement yesterday that it kidnapped the two soldiers, who, with Babineau, were guarding a Euphrates River canal when they were attacked from several directions. The group's assertion could not be verified.
US military teams have swept the area near the ambush site by ground and by air in an effort to find the missing soldiers, according to Major General William Caldwell, an Army spokesman in Baghdad. A dive team also has been used in the search.
``Coalition and Iraqi forces will continue to search everywhere possible, uncovering every stone, until our soldiers are found, and we will continue to use every resource available in our search," according to a statement from the US military.
According to Ahmed Khalaf Falah, the farmer who said he saw the ambush, US soldiers raided houses and made arrests following the attack. Falah also said US troops were setting up checkpoints on all roads leading to the area of the attack and that helicopters were hovering at low altitudes.
Short, the Springfield vice principal, said Babineau's decision to enter the military is a popular one at the high school, where 15 percent to 20 percent of students choose the armed forces after graduation.
But Babineau had set an unusually high goal for himself, Short recalled. Before leaving the school, Babineau said he would return in 20 years as a five-star general.
``He was just a good guy in the halls, always laughing; always had a good sense of humor," Short said.
Babineau was part of the first graduating class at Springfield High School of Science and Technology, where he enrolled as a junior in its first year of operation.
That first graduating class of 157 students, Short said, was a motivated group that had made the difficult choice to transfer from another high school after sophomore year.
``He was just a good person to have as a student," Short said. ``He was the worker type." |
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