1LT Simon Cox, USA

First Lieutenant Simon Cox, USA, 30, of Mesquite, Texas; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; killed Feb. 2 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M2A3 Bradley in Taji, Iraq.

MESQUITE, Texas — With the Super Bowl approaching, the family of 1st Lt. Simon Timothy Cox Jr. thought of their deployed football fan in Iraq.

“He was so excited about sports and his family,” said Dorothy Duff, his mother-in-law who lives in Dallas. “He would get so involved and yell at them, ‘You’re kidding me!’ ”

Cox, 30, died Thursday after a roadside bomb detonated near his tank in Taji, the Department of Defense announced Sunday.

The Mesquite High School graduate was in his second tour of duty when he died, becoming at least the 195th Texas casualty in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the defense department.

Cox was shipped out for a 15-month tour in December. His next trip home was scheduled Feb. 25, when he would have celebrated the first birthday of his son, James. He and his wife, Jeni Duff, would have been married six years in May.

Cox, who also had a 3-year-old son, earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Arlington and wanted to be a high school teacher after his service. He also served as a youth minister at churches in Dallas and Mesquite.

“Our youth here are devastated because he really meant a lot to them and spent a lot of time with them,” said Rev. Mark Mills, pastor at Eastridge Park Congregation Methodist Church in Mesquite. “He carried some of them through some tough times.”

Cox was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Fort Hood.

Capt Daniel G. McCollum, USMC

Captain Daniel G. McCollum, USMC, 29, of Irmo, SC; assigned to Marine Aerial Transport Refueler Squadron 352, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA:  killed in a refueling tanker crash on January 9, 2002 in Pakistan.

We lost a man from our Early Family Focus Bible Study yesterday at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon. This man was a good man. A Godly man with a gentle warrior spirit. He was an embodiment of our motto "Always Faithful" to God, Country and Corps. Yesterday, I thought about the names of the Marines as they were listed on the news. Before any military flight departs an airfield they call to the tower and advise how many souls are on board, I thought about if any of them were saved. I know how tight a flight crew is and when I learned that Dan was among those Marines, I knew he would have been a witness of Jesus Christ to each of those Marines. You see, because Marines take care of their own and see to all the needs of our fellow Marines. Our Core Values Charter requires of us as leaders of Marines to be spiritual and moral guides. Dan was a Christian leader of Marines. Their C-130 still had another final destination yesterday...Heaven. And Dan brought them home to report: All present and accounted for. May God bless the men and women who have answered the call to serve and bestow a peace of understanding to their families. In His Grip- Semper Fidelis, Sergeant Wil White, US Marine.

LCpl Abraham Simpson, USMC

3rd Battalion
1st Marine Regiment
1st Marine Division
I Marine Expeditionary Force
Camp Pendleton

The earnest and spiritual 19-year-old joined the Marines because he "wanted to be part of the best," his mother Maria Simpson said. "He wanted to be an influence everywhere he went and he believed God was going to use him in the Marines."

LCpl Abrahm Simpson was killed in combat Tuesday (Nov 9th, 2004) in the al-Anbar province of Iraq.

CPT Ian Weikel, USA
with Son, Jonathan

On April 18, 2006, Captain Ian P. Weikel, 31, of Colorado was killed in Iraq.  Captain Weikel was severely injured by a bomb that exploded near his patrol in Baghdad.

A Graduate of West Point, Weikel was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the 1st Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division based out of Fort Hood, Texas.

Weikel married a fellow West Point graduate.  He and his wife, Wendy, served overseas together in Europe.  She was discharged back to Colorado Springs when they learned she was pregnant with their first child, Jonathan Troy, a boy born in August.  Their son's middle name reflected the father's profession.  Troy means "foot soldier."