MORRISVILLE, PA, USA
U.S. Army
PFC, COMPANY A, 1ST BATTALION, 111TH INFANTRY (TF LIBERTY), PHILADELPHIA, PA
BAYJI, IRAQ 08/09/2005
Nathaniel Edward Detample, 19, of Morrisville, Pa. died August 09, 2005 serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Nathaniel was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment (Mechanized), Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Philadelphia.
Nathaniel E. DeTample may have been small in stature, but not in courage.
“All 130 pounds of Nate were always ready to stand tall and take on someone twice his size,” said the Rev. David Farina, pastor of the Calvary Full Gospel Church.
A wrestler, an Eagle Scout and a criminal justice major at Shippensburg University, DeTample impressed all with a dogged willingness to serve.
“He led the charge since the day I met him. He was always the guy who said, ‘Follow me,”‘ said Vince Paulauskas, committee chairman for DeTample’s Boy Scout troop.
DeTample looked substantially younger than he was, earning him the nickname of “Baby Boy.” He also loved the Phillies, and for a while in high school, he became fanatical about wearing orange.
“We all thought that he looked like a traffic cone,” said his uncle Steve Pursel.
He is survived by his parents, Glenn and Kimberly.
“We may have lost the finest example of a human being on Earth,” Darrell DeTample said of his cousin.