Remembering the Fallen: on this day in 2008, 1st Lieutenant Thomas J. Brown, 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, died in Balad, Iraq, of wounds sustained when his patrol came under small arms fire during dismounted operations.

Because he believed strongly in helping others to achieve, to honour his life a scholarship was set up in his name. He graduated from George Mason University in 2004 with degrees in government and international politics. Not content with an “ordinary job,” he applied for and was accepted to Army Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant infantry officer in 2006. He also earned the Ranger Tab and Airborne Wings, and was deployed to Iraq in April of 2008 after being promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Combat Infantry Badge. According to his brother, he wouldn’t ask his troops to do anything that he himself wouldn’t do. “He led his life by example and was always in front of the pack,” he said, “he always wanted to be the one with boots on the ground and in the front of the line.”

Thomas, of Burke, Virginia, was 26 years old.