Joshua Deese remembered

Army First Lt. Joshua Deese of Robeson County was on his second deployment when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Sunday.

Deese died in Balad from injuries caused by the explosion, the Defense Department said Tuesday. Sgt. Jonathan E. Lootens, a 25-year-old from Lyons, N.Y., also died from the blast. Two other soldiers were injured.

Deese, who was 25, was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, which is based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.

Deese entered the Army in October 2003 and reported to Schofield Barracks in August 2004, according to a spokeswoman at the Army post.

Deese graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2004 with a degree in American Studies, said his sister, Myra Deese.

She said Josh was the youngest of four children and their mother’s hands-down favorite.

“Josh talked to Mom every single day,” Myra Deese said. “Definitely, a mama’s boy.”

Myra Deese said her brother graduated from South Robeson High School in 1999. Their uncle, a career soldier, was his hero and because of him, Josh joined the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Program in high school and college.

“Josh always said he wanted to be a soldier,” Myra Deese said. “He wanted Ranger, Airborne ... and that’s what he did.”

Far from home
Myra Deese said the Army commissioned Josh after college, and he moved to Hawaii. He loved the beach, she said, and loved being on the island, but missed his family and hated being away from his son, Jacob Anderson, who is 2.

He returned from Afghanistan, his first deployment, in February and had been in Iraq since August, Myra Deese said. He had been talking about marrying his high school sweetheart — Jacob’s mother — when he returned.

When Josh came home to Rowland, Myra Deese said, she would cook him dinner — manicotti and lasagna were his favorites — and then the family would rent movies and lounge around together.

He went fishing with the men in his family every spring and loved to camp, she said. Still, the playful Josh in North Carolina was a serious officer when he returned to his soldiers.

Myra said she begged Josh to avoid the infantry and find a safer job in the Army.

“I kind of fussed at him,” she said. “He was an officer, and it was like, ‘You don’t need to do that, you’re in the most dangerous spot.’”

But her brother said he wanted to serve in a war zone, that was what he was trained for.

“He thought he would make a whole lot better officer if he was actually out there with the other troops,” Myra said. “That way he would know what it was they were going through and it would make him a better leader.”

Memorial plans are being handled by Richard Boles Funeral Service in Laurinburg.

Joshua Deese is survived by his son, Jacob, his parents, Rogena and Ronnie Deese, his sisters, Myra Deese and Ronnean Collins, and his brother Ronnie Dwayne Allen.

From the Fayetteville Observer

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Joshua Deese killed by IED