Amen !Mornin' ! Merry Christmas !
Posted on 12/09/2003 11:05:48 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
In the last conversation serviceman Ray Joseph Hutchinson had with his parents, he said he wanted to come to Houston for his grandmother's heart surgery but did not want to bump another soldier already scheduled to leave Iraq. Hutchinson, 20, was killed Sunday, two days after that 15-minute telephone conversation, his father, Michael, said with his voice breaking Tuesday.
U.S. Army Pfc. Hutchinson was returning from a security patrol when his Humvee drove over a handmade explosive device that was detonated by remote control in Mosul. Two other soldiers in the same vehicle were critically wounded.
"He was scared over there. It is not a happy place, but he believed in what he was doing," said Michael Hutchinson, an internal audit director for a bank near Phoenix.
He and his wife, Deborah, had recently moved there from League City, where their son was raised, and were looking forward to his return to see their new home.
"He was supposed to be home for Christmas," Hutchinson said.
As of yesterday, 448 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the Department of Defense. Fifty-five of those were from Fort Campbell, Ky., where Hutchinson was stationed.
With all the danger that he faced, Ray Hutchinson never regretted his decision to serve his country, his parents said.
After graduating from Clear Creek High School in 2001, he attended Texas State University in San Marcos (then called Southwest Texas State University) for a year before quitting to enlist in the Army.
"He has seen what happened on 9/11 -- the whole frightening situation with terrorism that continues to grow," said his mother. "He was not committed to a young lady yet and thought it was a time that he could serve his country."
The man whom family members called Ray Joseph knew that joining the service frightened his mother, and both parents tried to encourage him to remain in college. But his mind was made up, his father said.
"He was unencumbered and thought it would be a good time to serve," said his father. "I still support his decision. We have to try to give other people the freedom that we have. But at the same time, I hate it."
When Ray Hutchinson joined the service in 2002, the war with Iraq had not yet started. He went to boot camp and then to advanced infantry training at Fort Benning, Ga., where he graduated at the top of his class, said his mother.
He then took airborne training to learn to be a parachute trooper as well as a rifleman. He was transferred to 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, just two weeks before he was shipped to Iraq at the start of the war, his family said.
"He felt he was ready and trained to do what he could. He supported our president," Deborah Hutchinson said.
Although only a green private, he received commendation medals for helping take control of two key bridges in the early stages of the war in Najaf, his father said.
"He said he was only doing his job," Michael Hutchinson said. "But we got a copy of the medal and it said that during a time of confusion he had taken charge of the young men around him."
Ray Hutchinson also was with the group of soldiers who surrounded the home where Saddam Hussein's two sons were killed, his father said.
"He couldn't tell us everything. He said he'd have a lot more to say when he got home."
He added that his son never wanted to kill anybody: "As corny as it sounds, he knew freedom wasn't free."
Ray Hutchinson was a rifleman assigned to A Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Regiment of the 101st Airborne.
He was well-liked at Clear Creek High School, said Karen Fitzgerald, spokeswoman for the Clear Creek Independent School District.
"Before leaving for Iraq, he stopped by in uniform to say goodbye to his teachers. He was proud to serve his country," said Fitzgerald. He had been active at the school, playing the saxophone in the band and serving as the photographer of the school's newspaper.
On Tuesday, school officials informed students at the high school of Ray Hutchinson's death and made counselors available. The campus was also closed to visitors to allow students to grieve privately, Fitzgerald said.
Meanwhile, at the family's former home at 117 Lazy Hollow in League City, a tree in the front yard was decorated with a flag, yellow ribbon and plaster angel.
"The family who bought the house has kept it there in his honor all this time," said a neighbor, Terri Hubbard.
Other trees on the street also have been adorned with yellow ribbons since he was sent to Iraq.
Ray Hutchinson also is survived by a brother, Lee Andrew, 25, a Boeing computer technician in Clear Lake.
Services are pending at Sagemont Church on Hughes Road in League City.
"The bottom line is that he felt it was his duty to give back to his country, but God called him home," said his father.
Amen !Mornin' ! Merry Christmas !
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