Matthew Vosbein laid to rest

Following services for Sgt. Matthew Vosbein, Vosbein's mother Anna Williams (above from left), wife Linda and sons Brandon and Connor watch as the casket is carried from St. John's Catholic Church in West Frankfort. Vosbein was killed in Iraq shortly before he was expected to return home from his second tour of duty.

La. native had only a month left in Iraq

A life's calling is not always so obvious as it was to Matthew Joseph Vosbein, a Metairie native who spent his childhood dressing up in fatigues and later married a military girl.

Vosbein consummated a lifelong dream when he enlisted in the Army in September 2002 and became part of the first wave of soldiers to push into Iraq. He died there Aug. 29, less than a month before he was scheduled to return home, when a roadside bomb exploded while he was on combat patrol in Sadr Al Ysifiyah.

Family members describe Vosbein, 30, as an infantryman who saw grueling combat duty -- he once nearly died of heat stroke -- but who used to write home about the hospitality of the Iraqi civilians who offered soldiers tea after the Americans had swept their houses for weapons.

"He liked the people. He has a lot of pictures of him grinning away with his arms around civilians and kids doing peace signs around him," his wife, Lynda Vosbein, said. "In a combat zone, you cannot be friendly to everyone, but he liked to talk to people when he felt it was safe to stand there and have a conversation."

His family called Vosbein a devoted father to two sons, Connor, 5, and John, 7, both of Louisiana, and a stepson, Brandon Jackson, 12. His attachment to his children fueled his sense of purpose in Iraq, where he was troubled by the precarious conditions in which many children lived.

"It was very hard," his mother, Anna Williams, said of Vosbein's time in Iraq. "He felt very bad for the kids and the women because of the way they lived."

Read the rest at the Times Picayune

Related Link:
West Frankfort Soldier Killed in Combat (Matthew Vosbein)

Note: Due to problems with blogger we were unable to post news of the fallen for the last 10 days. This post is part of the update from that period.