Johnny Craver remembered

Natalie Craver, the wife of 2nd Lt. Johnny Keith Craver, who was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, said her husband didn't have to go to Iraq.

But she said he went “because he felt it was his responsibility to protect his country and his family, and he was proud to be a soldier.”

“He had plenty of opportunities to get out of the Army, but he never did that,” she said. “He always re-enlisted.”

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday that Craver, a McKinney native, died Oct. 13 after an “improvised explosive device” or IED exploded near his Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Craver served in the Army since 1993. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division of Fort Hood as an Infantry Officer, and received numerous decorations, including the Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and an Army Commendation Medal. He was 37.

Natalie said her husband was born in McKinney on June 23, 1969, to Kenneth Craver and Phyllis Broomfield, the oldest of two children including a younger sister, Sherry Craver.

Natalie said Craver left behind three children: Savanah 12, Caelen 9, and Emma Jo, 3.

She said her husband had a lifelong love for the military.

“It was a dream he always had,” she said.

Jesse Gonzales, a business owner from Blue Ridge who said he grew up with Craver in McKinney since the third grade, said he recently found some school papers from his “best friend's” junior high school days that had Army Ranger and Special Forces insignia drawn on the margins.

Gonzales and Craver also went to basic training together at Fort Knox in Kentucky after graduating from high school in 1987, then joined the National Guard in spring 1988 while they shared an apartment, worked during the day and went to school at night.

But when Gonzales decided to return to civilian life, he said Craver wanted to sign up for active duty full time.

“I did ask him when he decided to go into the Army and he called me and said he wanted a little bit more,” Gonzales said. “He said he wanted to do a little bit more for himself and for his country.”

Natalie said she followed her husband during his military career all over the world to places like Washington, D.C., Alaska and Hawaii, and he inspired many fellow soldiers along the way, both as a leader and as a friend.

“So many people have called me, soldiers from all over the world: Italy, Germany, Alaska, New York ... because he was their mentor,” Natalie said. “He was like a big brother to them. So many of these guys were so young, and fresh out of college, but Johnny loved that, that he could amaze them with his stories and his skills.”

But Natalie said even though his job as Ranger Leader at Fort Benning, Ga., kept him out of harm's way and near his family, he still longed to fight for his country.

“He had a hard time with that, though, because he felt like he was sitting on the bench on the biggest game of his life, and I would tell him that he's so lucky here with me,” Natalie said. “But he said, yeah, but I need to go so other daddies can come home and be with their kids.”

He became an infantry officer on June 2006 at Fort Hood and left for Iraq a month later.

Natalie said she would call her husband two or three times a week. She said she tried to call her husband on Oct. 13 so he could wish his grandmother, Martha Davis, a happy birthday, but no one answered.

“The call had been blocked out,” Natalie said. “When someone is injured or killed, their phones are turned off so there's no communication, but I didn't think about that.”

She said she kept trying to call into the following Saturday and didn't learn her husband had died until that night at her father John Moseley's house in Denton when two Army officers paid her a visit.

Natalie said Craver only had 45 days left to serve in Iraq at the time of his death.

“At that moment, I wanted to die and if I could have gone with him (Lt. Craver), I would have,” Natalie said. “But I'm here taking care of his babies and I'll be strong for them, but I'll never forget that moment when I found out he was never going to come home. He was never going to come back to me.”

Natalie said funeral arrangements are still pending.

Natalie said she'll miss the loving father of her children and the man who “lit up when he saw me,” who “loved me more than anything in the world and every time he looked at me.”

But she said she also knows he felt he had a calling to which he had to answer, even if no one asked him to do it.

“He didn't want us to think of him as the hero because he was just doing his job,” she said. “That was his job and he wanted to do it.”

From the Courier Gazette

Johnny Craver remembered by mother

DENTON - Called the best of the best, 2nd Lt. Johnny Craver of McKinney died instantly Friday in Iraq when he stepped onto a homemade bomb.

"And when they told me he had been killed, the first thing I thought of when I got my mind together was, 'Well son, you can rest now,'" said Phyllis Broomfield, Craver's mother. "They won't be shooting at you any more."

Broomfield said her son wasn't satisfied being just a soldier; he wanted to be among the elite. She said that drive led him to become an Army Ranger instructor and a war zone commander.

The 37-year-old left for Iraq in July, which was on the same day he signed papers on a new house that he never got to sleep in.

"I know I sacrificed something that will never be replaced," Broom field said. "But, I can also lay down in comfort and know that he did what he wanted to do, because that's what he was. He was a leader. He was a hero."

Broomfield, who works at the Denton County Jail, was among a group of people from the sheriff's office who comforted fellow employee and friend Charlene Sauceda when her son was killed in Iraq. An Army specialist, Ernie Dallas Jr. was killed in action in July of last year.

"When we were at Ernie's funeral, I would sit there and look at her and I would think, 'I can't imagine losing a child. I can't imagine what the poor woman's feeling,'" Broomfield said. "Now, I'm feeling it."

Craver left behind his wife Natalie, his 12-year-old daughter Savannah, 8-year-old son Caelen and 3-year-old daughter Emma.

"He was a soldier and a good soldier," Broomfield said. "He'll always be my hero."

Craver's body is expected to arrive Friday at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. He will be buried next week.

From WFAA 8

Related Link:
Johnny Keith Craver killed in combat