'To know him was to love him'

Images courtesy: Reiners family/The News Chief

As Operation Moshtarak continues in Helmand province, it is important to remember that fighting has not paused in other parts of Afghanistan. Earlier this week, The Unknown Soldiers told you about a terrorist attack in Zhari province, which killed three American soldiers, including 24-year-old Staff Sgt. John Reiners.

As the photo at the bottom of this post shows, Staff Sgt. Reiners pursued a life of military service since boyhood. His half-sister, Glennette Jackson, told The News Chief in Florida that he wore camouflage from a very young age, and made the military one of his life's greatest passions.

Kara Phelps' powerful, beautifully written article paints a loving portrait of this brave man, who will be dearly missed, along with his two comrades also killed in the attack, Sgt. Jeremiah Wittman and Spc. Bobby Pagan.

Growing up in Lake Hamilton, [Reiners] played Little League Baseball for years. He was a Boy Scout and a member of the national Young Astronauts program.

He also had a streak of mischief; he loved pulling pranks on his siblings, said his mother, Rhonna Jackson.

"To know him was to love him," she said.

Few soldiers have seen more of America's post-9/11 struggle. Reiners, who was highly decorated and well-respected, completed two tours in Iraq, and was wounded twice in bomb attacks. Not long after his third wedding anniversary, he left for Afghanistan. Casey Reiners, who fell in love and had a child with the husband she met in first grade, was with his parents when his flag-draped casket returned to Delaware's Dover Air Force Base. While few of us can comprehend the emotions she is experiencing, hopefully she is comforted that the American hero's legacy will live on through their two-year-old, Lex.

Near the conclusion of the article is an extraordinary, devastating line written by the fallen soldier's grieving mother.

"I carried him for nine months. I raised him for 18 years," Rhonna Jackson wrote. "And he repaid me by giving his life for my freedom."