Soldier was disarming a bomb

BY PAUL AYARS
THE COURIER

Logan County had its first fatality of the war in Iraq Thursday.

Army Staff Sgt. Daniel G. Gresham, 23, of Lincoln, a munitions expert, was disarming a bomb and a nearby bomb went off, killing him.

Gresham, who had been in Iraq only a week but was a veteran of the conflict in Afghanistan, was assigned to the 797th Ordnance Company, 79th Ordnance Batta-lion, 52nd Ordnance based in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The Defense Depart-ment did not immediately provide other details on Gresham’s death, including where in Iraq he died.

Gresham’s mother and two sisters live in Chicago.

"He’s a good boy, very smart. He fight for America. He gave his life for freedom," said his mother, Esther Choe Yu Chin Gresham of Chicago.

Daniel’s father openly sobbed openly as he summed up his son’s life.

Robert Gresham, of West Plains, Mo., also was a military veteran.

"He was just a wonderful kid. I tried to talk him out of that (munitions). I told him you got to get out of that. He had talked about being a veterinarian. He wanted to get enough money to pay for his education," Gresham said.

As for the war, "First of all, I think he would tell President Bush not to stop," said the father. "He would say we need to get this thing done. He was no quitter. When all those people are free, they’re signing that declaration, he’s going to be right there with them."

A sister, Julie Gresham, 29, of Des Plaines, said Friday night, "He went into the service because he wanted to accomplish something big in his life, which he did."

She said her brother was "funny, quiet, very reserved, very calm, witty. Oh, I couldn’t have had a better brother. He was wise for his age."

Another sister, Elizabeth Gresham, 27, with her mother in Chicago Friday night, said, "He was my best friend. At Christmas, he bought me a Rottweiler, ‘Maximillion T. Buford.’ I was just talking to Daniel Wednesday, telling him how big Max was." The puppy had already gone from 4½ to 25 pounds.

Eric Ferguson, a friend of Gresham’s from junior high, learned of his death Friday night.

"Gosh, he was just hilarious," Ferguson said. "One of things everybody would say about him, he was always making jokes and had a good sense of humor. He was the one I kind of did playful things with in junior high and early in high school."

Gresham was born May 23, 1981, at Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital. He leaves many relatives in the Atlanta area.

Gresham went to New Wine Christian School and transferred to Lincoln Community High School before obtaining a general equivalency diploma and entering the service at age 17 on his mother’s signature.

He’d been in the service five years Wednesday, his sister, Julie Gresham said.