Monday, August 07 2006 @ 08:44 AM EDT
Contributed by: tomw
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 Enid News -- Army Staff Sgt. Clint Storey’s mother will remember everything about him, and the “cowardly” way in which he was killed Friday in Iraq.
Storey, 30, of Enid, was killed in Ramadi when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded near his Humvee. He was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, which is headquartered in Friedberg, Germany. He was killed along with Sgt. Bradley H. Beste, 22, of Naperville, Ill.
In addition to his mother, Carol Storey Inherst, and stepfather, Bill Inherst, both of Enid, Storey is survived by his wife, Melissa, and 4-year-old daughter, Adela. The Storeys are expecting another child, his mother said.
In a posted response to a story that ran in the News & Eagle in April, Storey, who grew up in Enid and attended Enid schools, said he knew what it was like to be a soldier in Iraq.
“To paint an accurate portrait of the daily lives of soldiers in combat you must speak to the soldier that is kicking down the doors of mudhuts to find that insurgent who just fired those mortar round, or to the soldier that is treating the casualties caused by those mortar round,” Storey said in that posted response.
Funeral arrangements for Storey are pending with Henninger-Allen Funeral Home in Enid. His mother said she wants to have a military funeral in Enid, but Storey may be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
“He deserves everything he gets,” said a tearful Storey Inherst.
She clutched a photograph of Storey that recently was sent after he was injured just two weeks ago when his Humvee was hit by another IED.
He was on crutches for a short period and then went back out on patrol. Storey Inherst said her son was very proud of his military service.
“Our only comfort is this is what he really wanted to do,” she said.
Storey Inherst last saw her son two years ago when he was home on leave. She last talked with him by e-mail shortly after his injury two weeks ago.
Storey was a recruiter for three years in Los Angeles before moving to Germany with the Army and eventually being stationed in Iraq.
“I was proud of him when he was a recruiter, but he hated it. He wanted to fight for his country,” his mother said.
Storey had been in the military since 1997 and was determined to make it his career. After he was wounded he talked with his mother, saying “Someone up there likes me,” she said.
“There aren’t enough words to express how proud I am of him.”
In an interview with the Tulsa World, Melissa Storey said she last heard from her husband in an e-mail several days ago.
“I am grateful that I had the eight years I had with him. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time,” she said in a telephone conversation from Palmer, Mass., where she is staying with her parents.
“I lost my soulmate ... but he will never not be my husband.”
There second child is due in February.
“I’m devastated that my child won’t have any memories of his or her father,” she said. “And my daughter will only have four years of them.”
As a child Storey was mischievous, his mother said, but he was a leader, and he always had many friends. He was popular with the girls, his mother remembered, and pestered his older sister.
“When he was a teenager he spent more time in the bathroom than his sister,” she said.
She said the death of his father when he was 17 caused him to drop out of high school. He later earned his GED and joined the Army.
He was raised by Storey Inherst and her current husband of 20 years, Bill.
She confesses he was a “mama’s boy,” but she said the day his daughter was born was the proudest day of his life, and he was a doting father.
“Clint was my baby, my only boy. He was my whole life,” she said.
He also is survived by a sister, Charlene Phillips of Newcastle, and two half-sisters, Tammy Divine, of Waynoka, and Tonja Whitehead, of Bartlesville.
“I will remember everything,” Storey Inherst said as she spoke of her son. “The way he walked and talked, the smell of his cologne. Waiting on him hand and foot when he was home ... the way he slept.
“It was cowardly, the way my son had to die. They plant a bomb, then go hide in the bushes.” |
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