Douglas C. Desjardins killed by I.E.D.

Douglas Desjardins was a lot like other young men graduating from high school. He wasn't a bad guy, but he lacked direction, so he joined the U.S. Army.

Desjardins, 24, found pride and a sense of belonging, but it also cost him his life.

The former Westwood High School student and Carson Junior High School wrestler died in combat Sunday in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device went off near his tank.

"He was glad to be there. He had his friends there. He knew he was doing something with his life," said Barbara Desjardins, 46, his stepmother and a Mesa Public Schools bus driver.

Desjardins said the Army was a good career choice for her stepson, that he'd become a good mechanic in the service and he could have landed a good job if he had survived the war.

"He was so proud he could take a tank apart and put it together," Desjardins said. "We were very proud of him."

Douglas Desjardins became the seventh Mesa soldier to die in Iraq. In all, 78 from Arizona have been killed. Desjardins was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, Ist Armored Division, based in Giessen, Germany.

Although Desjardins attended Westwood, Carson and Whittier Elementary School, he graduated from Scio High School in Scio, Ore., where his mother lived.

Douglas ended up living with his friend, Mike Archdeacon, and his mother, Patricia Ring, in Scio.

Craig Hamnquist, a teacher who mentored Douglas, wrote in a eulogy on the school Web site that Douglas struggled academically, bouncing from the Mesa to the Scio school district, and barely graduated in 2000.

"He got himself in gear and performed an amazing turn-around," Hamnquist wrote, after extensive pressure from his parents. "I'm sure that Doug knew he was liked, but I think in the last quarter, it amazed him how intensely people cared about him and his future."

She said her stepson, who she raised since he was 4, was a quiet boy. She got him involved in soccer, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts to "get him out of his shell." He lost much of his shyness as he reached high school.

Douglas once dreamed of flying a jet, his stepmother said, and ended up in a tank.

"I just think this thing (Iraq war) has to end," Barbara Desjardins said.

From Arizona Central