Company B 1st Sgt. Rodney F. McClinton, says a final goodbye to one of his soldiers, Pfc. Gunnar D. Becker of Forestburg, S.D., who died in Iraq on Jan. 13. (Kimberly Snow / U.S. Army)
Company B 1st Sgt. Rodney F. McClinton, says a final goodbye to one of his soldiers, Pfc. Gunnar D. Becker of Forestburg, S.D., who died in Iraq on Jan. 13. (Kimberly Snow / U.S. Army)
Pfc. Gunnar D. Becker, 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment, Vilseck, Germany. (Courtesy of U.S. Army)
The military community in Vilseck, Germany, bid farewell last week to the first 2nd Battalion, 63rd Armor Regiment soldier to die after nearly a year in Iraq.
Pfc. Gunnar D. Becker, 19, of Forestburg, S.D., died Jan. 13 in Mosul when a .50-caliber machine gun round was accidentally discharged, ricocheted and struck him, according to an Army news release.
In remarks at a Jan. 15 memorial service in Mosul, the battalion’s command sergeant major pondered what the platoon was going through after coming so close to bringing home every soldier.
“I just can’t imagine their pain,” Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Bartoszek was quoted as saying in the release. “They could see the finish line. It’s so difficult to lose a soldier like this.”
The young tank driver joined the Army in August 2003. His assignment to 2-63 Armor was his first.
In remarks at a memorial service Thursday at the unit’s home in Vilseck, Becker was remembered for his sense of humor and for lifting the spirits of his fellow soldiers.
“Those who knew him were intimately familiar with and couldn’t resist Gunnar’s positive attitude, good-natured spirit and perennial lightheartedness,” said Capt. Justin Shell, 2-63 Armor rear detachment commander. “He was the guy with a smile on his face that could bring levity to any situation and is the one his peers looked to, to break the monotony that is inherent to all deployments.”
However, when it came to the mission, Becker was serious.
“Pfc. Becker liked to joke around in his off time, but while on patrol, he was all business,” Shell said. “He was a dedicated, dependable professional that his teammates could rely on in any situation. He was both a skilled tank and [Humvee] driver and … his platoon’s unofficial mechanic.”
Becker put the needs of his fellow soldiers before his own, according to Shell.
“Gunnar was the 19-year-old soldier who, of his own volition and without coercion, relinquished his [rest and recuperation] slot so that a fellow soldier could return stateside to his ailing grandfather,” he said. “God reclaimed Pfc. Gunnar Becker from this earth almost 20 years after he had been born. Undoubtedly, Gunnar meaningfully touched more lives in his 19 years than the average man does in a lifetime.”
The Vilseck community observed a moment of silence at 10:30 p.m. Saturday, which would have been Becker’s 20th birthday.
Becker is survived by his parents, Deborah and Duane, and sister DiJo.
