Two 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment soldiers remembered in Vilseck ceremony
View Gallery (3 images)
VILSECK, Germany — Two 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment soldiers, killed last week in Afghanistan, were targeted by a “desperate enemy,” according to the soldiers’ squadron commander.
Soldiers gathered Thursday at Rose Barracks Chapel to remember Sgt. James A. Ayube II, 25, of Salem, Mass., and Spc. Kelly J. Mixon, 23, of Yulee, Fla.
The two died Dec. 8 in Balkh province from wounds sustained when an insurgent attacked their unit with a bomb, according to a DOD news release.
“The terrorists are using the last tool in their arsenal, a tool that requires their own sacrifice to target you – the enemy is desperate,” said 3rd Squadron commander Lt. Col. Bryan Denny, whose remarks from an earlier ceremony in Afghanistan were read in Vilseck. “A tool that requires their own sacrifice to target you — the enemy is desperate.”
Both soldiers were assigned to 3rd Squadron’s Company H.
Ayube, a combat medic, who extended his time with the unit so that he could deploy with his company, was remembered as being one of the best at his job, and was named the company’s senior medic, Denny said.
“We made him what he was; a highly trained, skilled medic. A great soldier,” he said.
“We cannot take all the credit — he came to us as a compassionate, caring, hard-working, motivated man.”
Mixon was remembered as a “pure blooded infantryman to the core — quick to anger and eager to fight,” said Capt. Daryl Murton, Company H executive officer, whose comments in Afghanistan also were read during the Vilseck ceremony. “He was always one of the first to jump to do something though. Half the time, he didn’t know what it was he was going to do,” Murton said.
Mixon was such a good marksman that he was made the company’s sniper, a slot that is normally filled by a sergeant, according to Denny.
“Mixon was talented, aggressive and full of life,” Denny said. “He was a young man you would want near you in a tough situation,” he said.
Ayube is survived by his wife, Lauren, and Mixon is survived by his wife, Amy, according to the unit.
