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Lance S. Sage

    
Thursday, December 29 2005 @ 11:01 PM EST
Contributed by: River97
Views: 1,021
Individuals USwww.newsday.com -- Spc. Lance S. Sage, an only son from Lakeview who dreamed that the Army would take him to far-off places, was killed in Baghdad Tuesday when an improvised explosive device detonated while he was on patrol, the Department of Defense reported Wednesday.

Sage, 26, of the Fourth Infantry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas, had been in Iraq for only a month, said his mother, Alice F. Jones, 67. She last heard from him on Thanksgiving, four days before he deployed.



Sage is the 16th Long Islander to be killed in Iraq since the war began. The Department of Defense released few details of Sage's death Wednesday, saying only that he and Pvt. Joshua M. Morberg, 20, of Sparks, Nev., had dismounted from their patrol when an improvised explosive device detonated and killed them.

An Army spokesman did not provide additional information, but Jones said that officers told her Sage had been raiding a building when the device was either thrown or detonated remotely.

A shy man despite his 6-foot-9 frame, Sage surprised family and friends when he announced three years ago that he wanted to join the Army. He was 23 and making a living fixing and upgrading computers. "Guys that you see in the Army are very outgoing, but this is what he wanted to do," said Annie Cherry, a family friend who shares her house with Jones. "He wanted to make a life."

As a boy growing up in Hempstead, Sage was curious about other places. When he was little, Jones would take him on road trips to nearby cities. "We'd just get on a bus, and take a hotel room," she recalled. Atlantic City, Philadelphia -- Sage loved it all. For some reason, the little boy always wanted to see Buffalo. "Maybe he thought they really had buffaloes," Jones surmised.

Sage was Jones' only son, and the two were inseparable when he was a child, she said. Yesterday, as she rocked gently in an armchair, it was clear the news hadn't fully dawned on her. She spoke in a dry, calm voice.

As a teenager, Sage didn't do well in local schools, so Jones sent him upstate to Lincoln Hall, an all-boys school for kids with discipline problems. He thrived in the new atmosphere, she said, and graduated in 1997. After high school, Sage took computer classes.

"He always liked to take things apart and put them back together," Jones said. One time, he took apart her radio and hid it under her bed when he realized he couldn't put it back together again, she recalled with a laugh.

Sage was a big guy -- in addition to his height, he weighed more than 300 pounds -- so big, in fact, that when he first decided to join the Army, he didn't qualify because his neck wouldn't fit in standard-issue Army shirts, Cherry said. So before enlisting, Sage spent several weeks jogging, working out on an exercise machine and limiting his diet. When he had lost 50 pounds, he made the cut.

He trained in Kentucky and was assigned to the Fourth Infantry Division in Fort Hood, Jones said. In the Army, he made plenty of friends and enjoyed the seriousness of the task before him. "We have to be on point," he would tell his mother proudly.

Sage knew that he might get sent to Iraq, and he was ready for it. "We knew he was going sooner or later," Jones said. "And that's what he wanted to do."

"Don't worry. If that's what it's going to be, that's what's going to be," he would tell Jones and Cherry of the possibility of getting killed.

Jones got the news Tuesday night, just after she had returned home from her job as an assistant to an elderly couple. Around the same time, she said, officers were delivering the news at the Brooklyn home of his father, Calvin Sage. He could not be reached for comment.

When she saw the officers at her door, she knew, she said. Cherry knew, too, because they had called on Jones earlier in the day, while she was still at work. "When you have children who are away and you see somebody standing there, they're either dead or injured," Jones said. "I don't know why I felt this, but I knew he was dead."
 
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Lance S. Sage
Authored by: anonymous on Friday, December 30 2005 @ 12:50 PM EST
I wish you the strength, of which I don't know if I would ever be able to bear, My Son also was in the group that left Ft. Hood right after Thanksgiving , I was lucky and got to see Michael the week before he left, they allowed him a quick flight home to Wisconsin to see us before he took the long flight to Iraq, I am glad they allowed him to come because he left with the peace of mind that he got to see us. I am so proud of My Son . My prayers are with you. I hope that Michael got to know your Son.
Lance S. Sage
Authored by: anonymous on Saturday, December 31 2005 @ 11:46 AM EST
YESTRDAY, WAS A CANDLE LITE SERVICE AT THE HUNINGTON TOWNHOUSE IN HUNTINGTON, LONG ISLAND IN NEW YORK. GIVEN BY THE OWNER OF THE HUNTINGTON TOWNHOUSE MRS. SILVER. TOGETHER WE THE FAMILIES LITE A CANDLE FOR ANOTHER SON OF LONG ISLAND "LANCE SAGE". AFTERWARD MR. MOE FLECTHER AND I, STOPPED BY HIS MOTHER MRS, JONES TO GIVE HER THE CENTER PIECE OF WHITE ROSES AND CANDLES. DECORATED IN RED WHITE AND BLUE WITH AMERICAN FLAG ON EITHER SIDE. LANCE YOUR MOTHER A VERY SWEET LADY SPOKE VERY HIGHLY OF YOU. FROM TELEVISON AND CABLE TO NEWSPAPER INTERVIEWS. IF ALL OF LONG ISLAND NEVER HEARD OF YOU LANCE. MOMMA MADE THAT UNDERSTOOD! GOD BLESS LANCE!
  • Lance S. Sage - Authored by: anonymous on Wednesday, January 04 2006 @ 03:00 PM EST
Lance S. Sage
Authored by: anonymous on Saturday, December 31 2005 @ 08:11 PM EST
Lance,
I would like to say thank you to you and the other soldier from your unit(2/8th Inf.) who was killed in that blast for your service and sacrifice for our Country. And to your family, I wish to extend my deepest sympathy.
Lance S. Sage
Authored by: anonymous on Tuesday, January 03 2006 @ 11:25 AM EST
I love you bro, and I will miss our long conversations about our lives. I am truly sorry for not forcing you to go fishing with Owens and I, because now there will never be our mid-tour leave fishing trip. I hope one day we shall see each other again. You did good! Scouts Out!
Ueno, Sean (Jap-O)
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