BLACKSBURG, Va., Sept. 10, 2004 – The following statement has been issued by U.S. Army 1st Lt. Timothy E. Price's family. Price was a member of the Virginia Tech Class of '01 and the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. Price was killed by hostile fire in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Sept. 7. He was 25.
STATEMENT:
As you may be aware, our older son, 1LT Timothy E. Price, leader of the 3rd Platoon, 127th MP Company, was killed in action in Baghdad, Iraq, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004. At the time of his death, Tim was attempting to secure a defensive perimeter around a disabled Army vehicle that had been struck by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) and was in flames. Tim, who was 25, was serving his second tour of duty in the Baghdad area.
We are extremely proud of him, his accomplishments, and the improvements he and his soldiers have been able to make in Iraq. Every parent feels that their children are special, but we have had so much positive feedback from people that Tim interacted with on a variety of levels that we know Tim was special not only to our family, but to nearly everyone he had contact with.
Perhaps the best way to divide this statement is on the basis of a biographical sketch of Tim’s life since high school and then to provide some observations on his character and the way we felt about his service and the impact of his loss on our family, his friends, and his comrades in arms.
I want to make it clear that the Army was Tim’s calling, and that he was very well trained, highly disciplined, motivated, and competent in executing his duties. As Tim worked his way up through a variety of leadership positions within the corps of cadets at Virginia Tech, we were able to watch him develop both as a leader and a man as he rose to meet challenge after challenge during his years in the ROTC program. He graduated from Tech with a Distinguished Military rating, a degree in Forestry, and was commissioned a 2nd LT in the U.S. Army on May 10, 2002. After graduation he worked as a "gold-bar" recruiter with incoming members of the corps of cadets encouraging them to select the Army as their Branch of service. His next stop was Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., for the Military Police Officers Basic Course. Tim won a gold rating on the German Military Efficiency test and was on the Commanders list for his achievements during training.
We were unable to attend his graduation exercises, and he was anxious to get home and drove straight through to Richmond from Missouri. We dropped his car off in Portsmouth for transport to Germany and took him to the airport for his flight. It was a very emotional moment to see him board the plane for Germany and the start of his active duty career.
A few weeks later he was in Baghdad soon after the end of major combat operations and assumed command of his platoon in the 527th MP Company. The mission was to reopen and staff the Iraqi police stations that would be necessary to restore law and order in post-war Iraq. Trained MP’s were in short supply, which meant long work hours in unbearable heat trying to train the new recruits through the use of interpreters. The work was both frustrating and rewarding and Tim became very close friends with some of his IP’s during his tour. One reason that he was held in such high regard by the Iraqis was that he treated them with the same degree of respect that he showed his American soldiers. He recognized that they did not have a Western perspective on affairs, but that this was their homeland and they were anxious to be a part of the process of restoring order. Most of Tim’s first tour of duty was spent in the effort to upgrade Iraqi Police operations to a sustainable level. This was a huge task to accomplish with the limited resources available, but significant progress was made during the first year in Iraq.
Tim returned to his permanent duty station in Giessen, Germany, when his Company (527th MP) completed the tour of duty. Soon afterward, he took leave and returned to Virginia for a well deserved rest and to celebrate his 25th birthday. During his period of leave he was able to make contact with his many friends and visit with family members. He also had the opportunity to address the corps of cadets at Virginia Tech as part of a program featuring four previous graduates of the corps that had all returned from tours of duty in Iraq. The purpose of the program was to give the officers a chance to tell the cadets what to expect "downrange" when they graduated and started their active duty assignments. The emphasis was on preparation, and Tim told the cadets that one of the reasons he felt he had been successful in his assignment was that he didn’t look for the easy way out while he was in the corps. He also told the audience that the training he received left him confident and well prepared, but that the new officers would have to do a lot of things using their best judgment because there wasn’t a manual that would prepare them for many of the situations they would be in. He also stressed the importance of maintaining the Corps values in their assignments and their lives.
After his return to Germany, Tim slowly got into the routine of training for the next mission and getting his troops back into top physical condition after they returned from leave. Tim always loved to travel and he and a group of officers he served with took advantage of their posting in Germany and traveled on their days off enjoying the countryside as well as the local food and beer. Not long later, Tim was asked to return to Baghdad for a second tour of duty in the same basic area of Baghdad that he served in on his first tour. He agreed to go back and left Germany in June to assume command of the 3rd Platoon of the 127th MP Company, the position he held until his death on Sept. 7, 2004.
Now that you know a bit about Tim and his assignments in his military career, I’d like to give you some insight into the type of officer and man he was and what he meant and continues to mean to his family, friends, and brothers in arms.
Tim was our first child and he was a miracle to us. We were blessed to have him for a son and we are crushed to have lost him. I can’t begin to list all the plans that we had made that will never come to fruition, all the opportunities to spend quality time that will not happen now that he is gone. Tim was a true warrior and he was in his element leading his troops and getting the mission accomplished with minimal casualties. He led by example and earned the respect of all those around him, including the troops he commanded. He had the self-confidence and motivation that it takes to lead soldiers into battle and his troops trusted his judgment implicitly. For him, "the uniform" was a perfect fit. He was born to lead, and others recognized this in him. Obviously, his family could not have been any prouder of him and his accomplishments. During the first tour we would hold our breath every time we heard of soldiers dying in battle and wonder if it was Tim or his men that had been involved, and then a few days or a week later with nobody from the Army coming to pass on bad news and perhaps a quick e-mail from Tim, and we could exhale. But then we felt the sense of guilt that comes from knowing that your son was alive, but that someone else’s son or daughter had made the ultimate sacrifice that one can make for one’s country.
The second tour was much different in that the political climate in Iraq had changed and we were gearing up for elections here in the United States, two situations that combined to make things more dangerous for our troops in Iraq. I have found out that all members of the family and many of Tim’s friends were uneasy about his return to Baghdad. It was almost as if he had used up a lot of his good luck on the first tour of duty. I followed the news more closely and prayed for his safety a lot more. I was numb when I was notified of his death, it didn’t come totally as a surprise, but it is still the worst feeling I have ever had in my life. Tim’s loss will deprive a lot of people of the things he was so good at. He had an infectious smile, a warmth and generosity that made you feel at home with him immediately, he worried at least as much about his family and friends as we did about him, and he was the one putting his life on the line daily. I rarely ever heard him complain about anything, no matter how bad conditions were. He spent a lot of time telling me how fortunate he was to have the NCO’s, troops, and leadership that he had, and he seemed upbeat no matter how bad the situation was. He was a great tactician, a natural leader and would have made a fine career officer. Frankly, he was the kind of guy that would have succeeded at anything he tried.
I guess the final question that has to be addressed is whether any good will come from him having given his life for his country in Iraq. My feeling is that as members of Tim’s family, we will try to live our lives to the standards that he set. I know that he has made a difference in the lives of many troops and civilians here, in Germany and in Iraq. We plan on starting a memorial scholarship fund for the Corps of Cadets in Tim’s name at Virginia Tech, with the hope that future officers will benefit from his sacrifice. I know that the Army is a better service for the brief period that Tim was a part of it. Will we miss him, yes, always; did he die in vain, no, not as long as other Americans are willing to put their lives on the line to keep our country safe and make the world a better place.
The Price Family