Joseph A. Strong killed in rollover accident

Pfc. Joseph Strong was among three troops in the Humvee when it crashed Tuesday in a dirt canal while on patrol south of Baghdad.

Strong was Boone County’s first soldier to die in the Iraq war, according to the Lebanon Reporter. The newspaper said he had been promoted to private first class early this year and was sent to the war zone in October.

Strong, a 2003 graduate of Western Boone High School, had wanted to join the Marine Corps when he was 17 after meeting with recruiters soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks, said his mother, Terri Batts.

"They came to the house with paperwork, and I would not sign," she said Wednesday. "I got mad. He waited a couple of years and then said he wanted to go into the Army."

He had hoped to become a police officer after leaving the military, Batts said.
Merv McNair, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lebanon, said Strong was a caring person with a great sense of humor.

"He was a man of good character," McNair said. "He was an easygoing man who liked to have fun. He was a likable man; I really loved him."

From the Star