My walk was dedicated in honor of:
Army Sgt. John M. Sullivan, Age 22 of Hixon, TN.
KIA December 30, 2006 in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom
He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Carson, CO.
He was married to Michele earlier in 2006 and his newborn son, John Michael Sullivan Jr., was born Dec. 31, a day after his father was killed in Baghdad during his second tour in Iraq.
Sullivan believed deeply in what he was doing and wanted to make his family proud.
Sergeant Sullivan wasn’t supposed to be working the day he was killed, but had volunteered to fill in for another soldier who was sick.
“This is the right thing for me to do,” Sergeant Sullivan wrote. In the last e-mail to his family, he wrote, “I’m so glad I’m doing something to make you proud of me.”
Mrs. Sullivan walked into the church behind her husband’s flag-draped casket, crying and carrying their son in a yellow blanket. At the end of the service, as her husband’s casket was about to be wheeled out of the church, a man in one of the front rows raised his hand and asked if he could speak. It was former U.S. Army Specialist Horace Coleman, who served with Sergeant Sullivan during his first tour in Iraq in 2004 as a gunner in his humvee. He told mourners that Sergeant Sullivan was more than a soldier and friend.
“He was my brother, and I loved him a lot,” said Mr. Coleman, 22.
He said Sergeant Sullivan was a “little guy,” not much more than 100 pounds, who wasn’t daunted by handling rounds of ammunition that probably weighed as much as he did. He joked about Sergeant Sullivan’s driving skills, saying he forgot Mr. Coleman was riding in the hatch and almost bounced him out of the humvee on occasion. But Sergeant Sullivan — nicknamed “Pancake” for reasons Mr. Coleman didn’t know — always made him laugh.
“Even sometimes in Iraq, you forget where you are every day because you’re having so much fun together,” he said.
Sergeant Sullivan’s friends from Soddy-Daisy High School, where he graduated in 2003, said he made them laugh and loved to build cars. The U.S. Army was a natural fit for him, they said, and he would come home on leave full of military stories.
Had an amazing walk this morning. I want to thank everyone who honked and waved in helping me honor this hero.
He will not be forgotten.
