Jonathan Lootens honored, remembered

Jonathan Edward Lootens was a sergeant in the U.S. Army who was killed in Iraq nearly three weeks ago. Though few in this area had met him in person, more than 100 people gathered at Greenwich Hospital yesterday to honor the 25-year-old native of Newark, N.Y., whose mother works as an operating room nurse at the hospital.

"Through your expressions and your words these past several years, Jonathan has entered our hearts, our minds," Surgery Department Director Dr. Philip McWhorter told Lootens' mother, Deborah Qualtieri of Norwalk. "He became our adopted soldier son, and no one had one better."

Lootens was a member of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division. He was deployed to Iraq in August. On Oct. 15, he and 1st Lt. Joshua Deese, 25, of North Carolina, died after an improvised explosive device detonated near their Humvee in Kirkuk. Lootens was laid to rest last week in Phelps, N.Y., where his father lives.

At yesterday's hospital service, his mother talked of how when Lootens came to visit her at the hospital during his military leave, so many of her colleagues would approach him and thank him for his service to the country.

"He would just smile his crooked little smile and say, 'Aw, it's nothing, just my job, doing what's right,' " Qualtieri said.

Lootens enlisted in the Army following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Serving in the military seemed to give him a purpose and allowed him to turn his life around, his family said.

"Jon was a precocious child, a very troubled teen who had no direction and he became a man who loved his family, his friends and his country," Qualtieri said. "His goal was to serve his country."

Lootens received many accolades for his bravery, including medals awarded posthumously, such as an Overseas Service Ribbon and the Purple Heart.

When he finished serving for a year in Afghanistan, Lootens re-enlisted in the Army at a time when many other soldiers were thinking of leaving the service, his older sister, Andrea Ralyea, 26, of Victor, N.Y., said later in an interview.

"The only thing that was going to get him out of the Army was a good woman," Ralyea said, adding that her brother saw the military as his job and wasn't discouraged by the dangers of it.

In addition to his family and friends, Lootens was also beloved by Nicholas Gelonesi, an 11-year-old Stamford boy whose mother also works as a nurse at Greenwich Hospital and is close friends with Qualtieri.

About five years ago Qualtieri suggested Nicholas write to her son. He did and from then on, the two became pen pals. Nicholas would talk about himself and what he was doing in school, including starring in a school play based on the movie, "Beauty and the Beast." Lootens would write back, telling Nicholas about Army life and that "Beauty and the Beast" was his favorite movie. The pen pals would finally meet two years later.

"My first thoughts were 'Wow, he's huge,' " Nicholas said of the 6-foot-4-inch Lootens.

The two exchanged gifts and continued writing letters to each other, only to meet one last time last year. Nicholas said he last spoke to Lootens by phone in July.

"Jonathan, you will always be my best friend and my hero and in my heart, I always thought of you as the big brother I never had," Nicholas said during the service.

Following the service, mourners gathered outside where more than 100 balloons were released in Lootens' honor, the setting sun reflecting off of them and their ribbons as they rose into the sky.

From Greenwhich Time

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