Pvt. Shawn D. Pahnke leaves
his wife, Elisha, and a son, Dean,
whom he never met.
Posted on 06/18/2003 4:53:25 PM PDT by demlosers
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — A U.S. soldier on patrol in northern Baghdad was killed by a single shot from a sniper, the military said Tuesday.
Pvt. Shawn D. Pahnke was married to a Shelbyville woman, Elisha (Callis) Pahnke. Family members were notified of his death around 6 a.m. Tuesday morning. They were still expecting military personnel to arrive for a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Maj. Sean Gibson, a U.S. military spokesman, said 25-year-old Pahnke was shot in the chest late Monday, about 11:30 p.m. The bullet likely penetrated Pahnke's flak vest by entering at an angle that missed an armored ceramic plate, according to military officials.
The others on the patrol did not see the gunman, and it was not clear if the soldiers returned fire, Gibson said.
The gunman escaped from the area as Pahnke collapsed on the ground. He was evacuated to a first aid station but died shortly afterward, Gibson said.
The shooting came on the second day of a major operation across central and northern Iraq to seek out illegal weapons stores and hunt for ringleaders of the anti-American resistance.
Pahnke, a tanker with the 1st Armored Division, had been in a Humvee convoy with Operation Desert Scorpion when the fatal shot was fired.
“They took the soldiers out of the (Abrahms) tanks they’d been trained for and put them on patrols,” Pahnke’s mother-in-law Rhonda Callis said.
Pahnke’s wife Elisha, who he met over the Internet, had seen him only four weeks since they married.
They met in September 2000, married in 2002, and six days later he left for basic training. He departed for the Friedberg Army Base in Germany on March 16, and had been in Kuwait about three weeks when he was killed.
Their son was born March 20, the day the war officially began. Pahnke helped his wife through the delivery over the phone, yet never got to meet his child.
During an interview in March, Elisha said the worst part about Shawn being overseas was not knowing when he would be deployed to the Middle East, or how long he would be gone.
Arrangements for Pahnke’s visitation and funeral likely will be in Illinois, Callis said.
He is expected to be buried in a new military cemetery in his hometown of Manhattan, Ill.
About 50 American soldiers have died in Iraq since major combat was declared over on May 1.
Pvt. Shawn D. Pahnke leaves
his wife, Elisha, and a son, Dean,
whom he never met.
Mine too.
Does this country still produce people with some real glands? Oh, yes it does- and sometimes, vicious, evil animals take those lives. May the benighted son of a bitch who pulled the trigger on Private Pahnke eventually get the absolute worst possible end of the bargain.
It's still a war going on. I hope the military leaders are going to deal with this sh*t. Our soldiers have GOT to be prepared for it. I wish there had never been any declaration of a semi-finish to this war. Now, if the troops DO try to defend themselves, we'll have the U.N. and all sorts of international idiot-types criticizing the methods they use to defend themselves. What a mess.
May God protect your boy. This family appreciates what he's doing.
What you're seeing here could be organized from groups outside of Iraq. Terrorists.
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