A community shaken

The close-knit Suck Creek community where Patrick Durham grew up is reeling from the news that the 24-year-old Army sergeant was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Saturday.

“Everyone is pretty torn up. It’s like a big family,” said family friend Eliot Richie, 28, who last weekend helped clean out a modest family graveyard a mile or so down the road in preparation for Durham’s burial.

“My jaw dropped. I was stunned. I still don’t think it’s real,” Ritchie said as he worked in his yard Monday morning.

Almost everyone in their neighborhood knew the Durhams, part of a community stretched along River Canyon Road, overlooking the Tennessee River, friends say.

“He was about one of the best people you’d ever meet,” said Jeremy Massengale, 26, who said he spent countless summers swimming with Durham in the Tennessee River. “I don’t think there’s many times I haven’t seen him with a smile on his face. ... The last thing I said to him was, ‘I love you and be safe, and I’ll see you in a little bit.’”

Durham, a father of three, attended Red Bank High School and was an avid guitar player. He had completed a tour of duty in Iraq before serving in Afghanistan, said longtime friend Amy Waite of Lookout Valley.

Family members are traveling to Delaware to pick up Durham’s body and a funeral date has not yet been set, Waite said.

“He was like a little brother to me,” said Waite, who is 25. “He was a big goofball. He was always a class clown. ... Patrick was very loved. He had so many people who cared about him.”

Durham’s neighbor and third cousin Nadine Hunkapiller remembers him as a child with big brown eyes, his face alight with excitement at the prospect of setting off fireworks.

“I’ve known him since he was a baby,” Hunkapiller said on Monday morning, pausing from watering the garden at her home next door to the Grandview Church of God. The church marquee offers a tribute in memory of Durham, reading in part, “Thank you. We will miss you.”

“It was just absolutely a hard blow,” Hunkapiller said. She recalled that years ago, Durham would watch her father — a commercial fisherman — pulling in his catch on the river and Durham would call down, “How big is that one?”

“He was always smiling. I know he’ll be so missed,” Hunkapiller said.

Friends say Durham loved his work for the Army, but he was eager to get home to see his children and wife, Kristy.

Saturday was the couple’s four-year wedding anniversary, Waite said.

“My heart goes out to his family. He’s going to be looking over everybody,” she said.

AFGHANISTAN CASUALTIES

A total of 1,255 American military personnel have been confirmed dead since the war in Afghanistan. The following have ties to this region:

* Sgt. Patrick Durham of the Suck Creek community was killed Aug. 28, 2010, in Afghanistan.

* Lance Cpl. Gregory Posey, 22, of Winchester, Tenn. was killed July 30, 2009, in Afghanistan.

* Sgt. Raymundo “Ray” Morales, 34, of Dawnville, Ga., was killed July 21, 2009, in Afghanistan.

* Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Seth Sharp, 20, of Adairsville, Ga., was killed July 2, 2009.

* 1st Sgt. John Blair (Ga National Guard) of Calhoun, Ga., was killed June 20, 2009, in Afghanistan.

* Sgt. Jeffery William Jordan, 21, of Cave Spring, Ga., was one of three soldiers from a Georgia National Guard unit killed in Afghanistan June 4, 2009.

IRAQ CASUALTIES

A total of 4,416 American military personnel have been confirmed dead since the war in Iraq began in March 2003. The following have ties to this region:

* Army Pvt. Thomas Edward Lee III, 20, of Dalton, Ga., died May 29, 2009 in Mosul of wounds suffered when an explosive device struck his vehicle.

* Army Cpl. Michael B. Alleman, 31 — a 1996 Southeast Whitfield High School graduate who had been living in Logan, Utah — died Feb. 23, 2009 in Balad of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.

* Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan W. Dean, 25, of Henagar, Ala., died Dec. 20, 2008 from injuries sustained during a non-combat related incident in Tikrit.

* Army Capt. Darrick Wright, 37, of Nashville — formerly unit commander of the Army Reserve’s 390th Engineering Company in Chattanooga — died Sept. 17, 2008 in Baghdad of non combat-related cardiac arrest.

* Marine Lance Cpl. James M. Gluff, 20, of Tunnel Hill, Ga., died Jan. 19, 2008 in Ramadi while conducting combat operations.

* Army Command Sgt. Maj. Jonathan M. Lankford, 42, of Scottsboro, Ala., died Sept. 22, 2007 in Baghdad of non-combat related cardiac arrest.

* Marine Lance Cpl. Will Chambers, 20, of Ringgold, Ga., drowned on July 1, 2007 just off the shore of Anbar province in a non-hostile boat accident.

* Army Pfc. Travis Haslip, 20, of Ooltewah, died May 19, 2007 in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

* Army Sgt. Shawn Dunkin, 25, of Chattanooga and Columbia, S.C., died Feb. 19, 2007 in Baghdad after his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device.

* Army Sgt. John Michael Sullivan, 22, of Hixson, died Dec. 30, 2006 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle while on combat patrol in Baghdad.

* Army Sgt. David Weir, 23, of Cleveland, Tenn., died Sept. 14, 2006 when he encountered enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire during combat operations in Baghdad.

* Marine Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren, 19, of Calhoun and Resaca, Ga., died Nov. 9, 2006 in a non-combat related shooting in Anbar province. The fellow Marine who shot Lance Cpl. Warren while playing with a rifle pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 27 months behind bars during a March 2008 court-martial.

* Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Scott, 24, of Ringgold, Ga., died Jan. 23, 2006 in a non-hostile vehicle accident near Taqaddum.

* Army 1st Sgt. Aaron Jagger, 43, formerly of Rossville, Ga., died Aug. 9, 2006 after an improvised explosive device detonated near his humvee while on combat operations in Ramadi.

* Army Sgt. James D. Stewart, 29, formerly of Chattanooga and a Fort Oglethorpe native, died June 21, 2005 after an improvised explosive device detonated near his military cargo truck in Rutbah.

* Army Pfc. James W. Price, 22, of Cleveland, Tenn., died Sept. 18, 2004 after an improvised explosive device hit his convoy vehicle in Baghdad.

* Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Lopez, 22, of Dalton, Ga., died June 21, 2004 during an ambush in Anbar province.

* Army Spc. Marshall Edgerton, 27, of Rocky Face, Ga., died Dec. 11, 2003 when his camp was attacked with an improvised explosive device in Ramadi.

* Marine Sgt. Brendon Reiss, 23 — a Wyoming native who is buried at the Chattanooga National Cemetery because his wife is from Cleveland, Tenn. — died March 23, 2003 in a grenade blast near Nasiriyah.

Sources: U.S. Department of Defense, icasualties.org, militarycity.com, Southeast Whitfield High School, newspaper archives.