Carter Gamble remebered

Seymour - The nephew of a southern Indiana Sheriff is the latest Hoosier casualty in Iraq. 24-year-old Army Specialist Carter "CJ" Gamble died Sunday after coming under small arms fire.

With 21 years in law enforcement, Jackson County Sheriff Marc Lahrman knows a lot about leaving family, and risking life for the greater good.

"You know, I go a lot of places most people don't want to go," Lahrman said, "and I don't think about it. That's my job. But to be in those shoes, it's tough."

The shoes are that of a soldier, Lahrman's nephew: 24-year-old Army Specialist Carter "CJ" Gamble, Junior. He pledged to protect our country straight out of high school.

After serving in Iraq in 2003, CJ was discharged from the Army. He then moved to Seymour to live with his grandparents.

During that time, his mother, Sheriff Lahrman's sister, lost her battle with cancer.

C.J. decided to re-enlist, "Knowing full well he'd go back to Iraq till this was over," Lahrman said.

The young soldier started his second tour of duty in March, away from his two-year-old daughter, and wife, expecting their first son.

He planned to advance in the Army after coming home, but C.J. never made it back.

"He was on patrol and they were checking buildings to make sure they were vacant and secure or whatever," Lahrman said, "and this particular one he was the first one in the door, and it was not empty."

Sheriff Lahrman got the word Sunday that his nephew had been shot and killed in Baghdad.

"My six-year-old said, well, 'maybe we won the war.' That's a tough question," Lahrman said, "and I had to tell him 'I'm not sure if we're in a war we can win.'"

For Lahrman, it's a war that's brought loss close to home.

"Getting ready to find out about parenthood," Lahrman said, "and find out what it was to be a dad, and grow up with his kid, and he's not going to have that opportunity."

It's a difficult reality. Even for an officer used to putting country and community, first.

From WTHR 13

Related Link:
Carter A. Gamble Jr. dies 'of wounds suffered from enemy small arms fire'