Saturday, April 01 2006 @ 12:54 AM EST
Contributed by: River97
Views: 1,124
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 www.kristv.com -- ORLANDO, Fla. -- An Orlando soldier was killed in Iraq when he was hit by small arms fire while on patrol, the U.S. Department of Defense said Friday.
Pfc. Sean D. Tharp was killed in Baghdad Tuesday when his element came under enemy small arms fire while conducting dismounted patrol operations, officials said.
Tharp, 21, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, out of Fort Hood, Texas.
"He'd just gotten over there," Michael Tharp, his stepfather told the Orlando Sentinel. "He was a brilliant kid. He had high enough test scores to do about anything (in the Army), but he chose the infantry."
Michael Tharp found out about the death when a reporter called at his home near the University of Central Florida Friday.
"I'm sorry I can't think right now," Tharp said. "Baghdad? That's supposed to be the safest place isn't it?"
Tharp said he had not seen his stepson since his divorce with Teresa Tharp three years ago.
But his stepson did call him before Christmas to say he was leaving for Iraq, Tharp said.
Teresa Tharp could not be reached for comment. Telephone messages left at her home in east Orange County and work were not returned. She teaches economics at Valencia Community College.
Sean Tharp enlisted on May 17, 2005, after talking to Orlando recruiters, the Army said.
"He was a good kid, a gung-ho kid," Ron Horvath, a spokesman for Army recruiters in Central Florida, said in a telephone interview from Tampa. "He impressed the recruiters who remembered he was reading a biography of (Gen.) Colin Powell."
He grew up on military bases in the United States after his mother and stepfather married when he was 3. Both were career soldiers, Michael Tharp said.
Michael Tharp said his stepson dropped out of school in 10th grade while at Edgewater High School in Orlando.
"He was just trying to get his life back together. He'd gotten his GED, and he had been straight for like a year before he went in," Michael Tharp said. "I think he enlisted to get the bonus money and get college money to go back to school."
Sean Tharp was posthumously given the rank of private first class, said Dalena Kanouse, an Army spokeswoman based in Fort Hood, Texas. |
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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.
"Deeds, Not Words"(22nd Inf. Motto)