Johnny Keith Craver killed in combat

Last year Denton County Sheriff's Sgt. Phyllis Broomfield cried with her good friend Charlene Sauseda as Ms. Sauseda's son, Army Spc. Ernie Dallas Jr., was buried with military honors after he was killed in Baghdad.

"I looked at her and wondered what it must be like to have to bury your son," Sgt. Broomfield said Monday. "Now I know."

Her own son, Army 2nd Lt. Johnny Craver, 37, was killed Friday in a small town south of Baghdad when an improvised explosive device blew up under his feet as he stepped out of the Bradley fighting vehicle he was commanding. Two of his men also were killed, and another soldier was injured.

Although their sons never met, the mothers are friends and coworkers at the Denton County Jail.

Sgt. Broomfield learned of her son's death Saturday as she reported for duty at the jail. Another officer met her inside and led her to an interview room.

"I walked down the hall, and the chaplain hugged me, and I saw a military man sitting in that room, and I went to my knees," she said. "I said, 'Please don't tell me my son is dead.' "

Sheriff Benny Parkey said Monday that sheriff's employees were saddened by the second Iraq war loss in the department.

"It's a tragedy any time a mother loses a son – on the battlefield or at home," Sheriff Parkey said. "Two of our employees have lost sons in the war. It makes it all the more real and closer to home. We'd ask that everyone keep this family in their prayers."

Sgt. Broomfield reared her son and his younger sister, Sherry, in McKinney. She almost lost him when he was a teenager, she said. He was badly injured in an automobile accident, and she was told it would be a miracle if he lived. She got her miracle then.

When he was 17, he came to her with enlistment papers for her to sign.

"I told him, 'You go look at that room of yours. They won't let you keep a room that messy,' " she said. "But he was determined to join, and when he finished high school, he did."

He became a Ranger and later a Ranger instructor. He served in Hawaii, Alaska and Washington, D.C., but he had not served in a combat area until he got his orders last summer.

On July 15, he and his wife, Natalie, signed the documents on their newly built house near Fort Hood. He left for Iraq that afternoon, never having slept a night in his new home.

Lt. Craver had three children, Savannah, 12, Caelen, 8, and Emma, 3.

Natalie's father, John Moseley, lives in Denton.

"I don't know all the details, but Johnny volunteered to go," Sgt. Broomfield said. "He told me he was going to be home Nov. 27. I knew he could take care of himself. He was always a leader. He had me convinced he was going to be OK."

A year ago, he walked his mother down the aisle when she married Dugan Broomfield, an investigator for the Denton County district attorney's office.

They watched Lt. Craver on television when he participated in the 2005 Best Ranger Competition, Sgt. Broomfield said. He had trained for the event for months. At the end, as he and his partner started up a steep hill, his partner twisted an ankle.

Lt. Craver took his partner's 80-pound rucksack and carried it, along with his own, to the top of the hill.

He had nearly finished a master's degree in business management, his mother said.

"Show me a perfect son – that was Johnny," she said. "Every Mother's Day and every birthday he would call me, no matter where he was in the world."

Lt. Craver's body is expected to arrive at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Friday. Ms. Broomfield expects the funeral to take place early next week.

"I know Johnny died doing what he wanted to do," she said. "I'd call him a hero, and he'd say, 'I'm not a hero. I'm just doing my job.' But he was a hero."

From the Dallas Morning News