Saturday, June 10 2006 @ 04:14 PM EDT
Contributed by: River97
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 www.timesreporter.com -- GREEN – When Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel B. Crabtree was home, he spent Saturdays running 15 miles round-trip with a 70-pound backpack strapped around his shoulders. The backpack was weighted with rocks.
“He had his motivation. I had my motivation,” recalled friend John Norman. “He was a go-getter.”
Crabtree, 31, was killed Thursday in Iraq when a roadside bomb exploded about 4 a.m. A 1993 Lake High graduate, Crabtree leaves behind a wife, Kathy, and 1-year-old daughter, Mallory, as well as family members at New Philadelphia.
Crabtree’s father, who had gathered with other family members at a family home on Friday, declined to comment on his son’s death. Ronald Crabtree of New Philadelphia, who works for the Canton Health Department, referred media requests to a military Web site for information about his son. Daniel had not resided at New Philadelphia.
The soldier was assigned to the Ohio National Guard’s 2nd
Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group based at Columbus, according to a press release from the city of Cuyahoga Falls. He served nine years on the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department.
“We’re going to miss him for a long time,” said Cuyahoga Falls Police Chief John Conley.
Crabtree was assigned to the patrol division and was a member of the department’s SWAT team and honor guard.
Conley said Crabtree left the department in November 2005 for National Guard duty.
Before coming to Cuyahoga Falls, Crabtree worked part-time for the Hartville Police Department. There, he befriended and kept in regular contact with the 52-year-old Norman, a patrol officer on the Hartville police force.
Norman said Crabtree was in his second tour of duty in Iraq. He said Crabtree was living his high school dream as a member of the Army’s Special Forces.
“This is what he wanted,” Norman said.
However, in recent weeks, Norman said Crabtree was looking forward to some stateside rest and a normal life. In an e-mail, Crabtree believed he would be back in the United States by the month’s end to finish out his tour, Norman said.
Crabtree told Norman he had planned to take some vacation time before resuming his police career and be an at-home dad for several weeks. Crabtree and his wife had just finished building a house on the outskirts of Green in Summit County.
“He was going to basically put the rest of his life into his wife and family,” Norman said.
Crabtree’s wife, Kathy, is a 3rd-grade teacher at Canal Fulton School in the Northwest Local School District, said Northwest Local Superintendent Dennis Lambes.
“He was young and ambitious, just a good guy. He did a good job while he was here,” said Hartville Police Chief George Dragovich. “I didn’t sleep well after I heard the news.” |
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I would like to say thank you for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
"Green Berets All the Way!"