FOUNTAIN CITY, WI, USA
U.S. Army
SSG, C C, 44TH ENGINEER BN, 2D INFANTRY DIVISION, (1 MEF), FORT CARSON, CO
RAMADI, IRAQ 03/07/2005
Staff Sgt Andrew Lee Bossert, of Fountain City, Wisconsin, was tall and muscular. He played basketball and baseball for the Cochrane-Fountain City School and graduated in 1999.
After spending a semester at the University of Wisconsin in Stout, he enlisted in the Army to not only serve his country, but to obtain the financial help in completing his college education. Andy wanted to become an architect more than anything. Andy loved to ride motorcycles and hang out with his friends. He will be remembered for his outgoing personality, his sense of humor, his warm smile and for often putting the needs of others in front of his own.
He was stationed in Korea for the next two-and-a-half years, and it is there he met Olga, who was from Russia and working as a schoolteacher in Korea. They married on December 9, 2002.
In August 2004, Andy was deployed to Iraq, assigned to the Army’s 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division based at Camp Howze, Korea. He was part of a team that helped build roads, bridges and clear mines. Andy was much respected by his fellow soldiers for his honesty, the way he cared for others and his work ethic. Most of the work he did was in the night hours, which suited him to a tee; he was always a night owl.
Home for a leave between Thanksgiving and Christmas, his family noticed how grown up he had become.
On March 7, 2005, Andy, 24, was killed in Ramadi, Iraq when a vehicle-borne IED detonated at a checkpoint they were passing through. His fellow soldiers called Andy a “ray of light in a dark place.”
He was buried in Cassville Cemetery in Cassville, Wisconsin. Andy’s parents had a flag flown over the United States Capitol in honor of his sacrifice. In the fall of 2009 they traveled to Warren, Wisconsin with that flag. Andy was promoted posthumously from sergeant to staff sergeant.