Pfc. Ray Joseph Hutchinson always picked the slowest players to be on his teams.
“It was very difficult for him to think of anyone being left out,” said his mother Deborah. “He was very sensitive about doing the fair and right thing.”
Hutchinson, 20, of League City, Texas, died Dec. 7 when an explosive detonated near his Humvee in Mosul, Iraq. He was assigned to the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
Hutchinson revealed a powerful conscience as a child, never gorging himself on junk food, even when he got the chance, and never showing anger toward his parents, his mother said.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he talked about joining the military.
“He was so stunned,” his mother said. “It became apparent that he wanted to do something to contribute to this great struggle.”
Hutchinson finished his year at what is now Texas State University-San Marcos and enlisted. Just before he was sent to Iraq in March, his parents visited him in Ft. Campbell, Ky., and bought him his favorite foods: steak, chips, chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies and candy corn.
He was scheduled to return to Texas in December because of an ailing grandmother.
“He had a destiny,” his mother said. “Ray Joseph’s destiny was fulfilled in 20 years.”
Concern for kids: Pfc. Jeffrey F. Braun believed luck was the reason he found adoptive parents when he was 6 months old. Braun, 19, wanted to help others by opening an orphanage in his native Honduras.
Braun, assigned to the Army’s Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, died Dec. 12 of a gunshot wound in Baghdad.
Braun seemed to be in awe of everything when his parents brought him home to Stafford Springs, Conn., said his father William. His favorite stuffed animal was a stegosaurus that was almost bigger than he was.
Braun loved nature and especially animals, constantly asking about birds, insects and reptiles, his father said. After learning to play chess from his mother, he started a chess club in middle school. He was also an avid soccer player.
He enlisted in the Army at 17 just after graduating from high school.
“He felt he owed the country that adopted him and treated him well,” his father said.
Waiting until he turned 18 for basic training, Braun worked as a youth counselor for a summer program, experience for his future career as a physical education teacher, his father said.
“He was a kid magnet,” his father said. “Kids just felt relaxed around Jeff. He just had no pretenses.”
