Paul M. Latourney dies of injuries from I.E.D.

His high school German teachers used to say Paul Latourney could speak more German than they wanted to hear.

The tall, slender young man with the affable manner also spoke Spanish fluently. His talent for language was the result of a childhood in Germany and a mother of Mexican descent.

Latourney received a partial college scholarship, but he wanted to be a soldier. On Friday, while patrolling in a perilous section of Baghdad, the Humvee he commanded was struck by a roadside bomb, killing the staff sergeant and Spc. Luis O. Rodriguez-Contrera, 22, of Allentown, Pa.

"There wasn't a more noble person," his father, Paul, formerly of Roselle, said Monday night. "He had the biggest heart you could imagine."

Latourney, 28, was born in Atlanta and moved to Germany at age 3 when his father was transferred. He spent the next 13 years there before moving to Roselle in 1994 and enrolling at Lake Park High School.

He made the honor roll and was in the German club. His junior year he ran on the cross-country team. As a senior, he joined the ski club. Between his final two years of high school, he went through basic training in South Carolina, the elder Latourney said.

His parents reserved a college dorm room for him at the University of Illinois at Chicago, but Latourney never occupied it, his father said. Ten days after high school graduation, Latourney was in the Army, reporting to Ft. Bliss, near El Paso, to learn to drive Bradley tanks and Humvees, his father said.

"He just couldn't see himself in an academic environment or in an office," his father. "He came from a comfortable environment, and I think he wanted a little bit of a challenge."

The Army provided him that challenge and more. Latourney was dispatched to Germany and then served in Tikrit, Iraq, in February 2004 until February 2005, when he returned to Germany for a few months. In about November 2005, Latourney was sent to Ft. Hood, Texas, then deployed to Iraq in December 2006, his father said.

"He was out all the time--night and day," the elder Latourney said of his son's patrols. "He loved it. He knew the risks. That's real bravery--when you know the risks and you control the fear and do what you've got to do."

Latourney loved to snowboard, ski, hike and brew beer, his father said. He recalled a boy who "would never argue with us" but do what he wanted. Three years ago, Latourney and his wife had a son, Isaiah, his father said.

In the Latourneys' former Roselle neighborhood, Steve Libera, who lived across the street, described Latourney as "very intelligent, very sociable" and "very polite."

"He enjoyed socializing with people who were more mature," Libera said. "He was not one of those wild boys.

"I can't believe it. After you know somebody from childhood, a super person like that, and they die in that way, it's just terrible, terrible to hear."

The elder Latourney struggled to explain exactly what drew his son to the Army. It might have been the stories his paternal grandfather, a World War II veteran, told him. Whatever the motivation, Latourney's younger sister, Anna, also was intrigued. She enlisted and rose to the rank of sergeant before leaving the Army to raise a family.

On Saturday, the family sent an e-mail to friends at St. Walter Catholic Church in Roselle, which they had attended, to inform them of the grim news.

"He was a brave and very proud soldier willing to face great danger everyday," the e-mail stated. "He was a wonderful son and the greatest of fathers. Those truths give us much comfort, and hopefully will help us get through this period of immense grief."

The family plans to have Latourney buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

From the Tribune