Jeffrey L. Chaney

Thursday, July 19 2007 @ 09:19 AM EDT

World-Herald -- A 35-year-old Omaha sailor was killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday in Iraq.

Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey L. Chaney and another sailor, from Wisconsin, died while traveling to their next mission, said Kim Martin, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., where Chaney was stationed.

Chaney was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11, where he worked clearing explosives. He'd been in Iraq about two months, said his sister, April Chaney of Omaha.

She said her brother loved his job. He graduated in 1990 from Bellevue West High School and joined the Navy in 1993.

He dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL, but problems with her brother's eyesight prevented that, April Chaney said. But, she said, his job was the next best thing.

Jeffrey Chaney has a daughter, Brianna Chaney, 14, also of Omaha. Her birth was his proudest moment, April Chaney said.

Next on the list was when he met Mikhail Gorbachev and former President George H.W. Bush while working with the Secret Service at Bush's 80th birthday celebration. He never thought he'd ever get to do anything like that in his life, April Chaney said.

Jeffrey Chaney also worked with the Secret Service checking areas for explosives in the most recent presidential election and met both President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

Chaney spent four years as a Navy recruiter. He was so good he signed up his older brother.

"He would say 'If you walk through my door, I'm recruiting you,' and Randy walked through his door," April Chaney said. Randy Chaney, of Omaha, is still in the Navy.

Jeffrey Chaney "loved the Navy, he just loved everything about his job, he was always talking about it," she said.

Other survivors include his mother, Connie Chaney of Omaha; his father, Larry Chaney of Bloomington, Minn.; and brother Jim Eckert of Oakland, Iowa.

He is the 63rd person from Nebraska and western Iowa or with ties to the area to have died in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Service arrangements are pending.

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