MIAMI, FL, US
U.S. Army
CPT, HHC, 2D BATTALION, 2D INFANTRY, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION, APO AE 09112, VILSECK, GE
05/03/2004, BALAD, IRAQ
Captain Christopher J. Kenny, a soldier who joined the Army seven years after graduation from The Citadel, died Monday (3 May 2004) along with three other soldiers when their vehicle plunged into a canal in Iraq.
Kenny, 32, was the fifth Citadel graduate to die while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He was serving with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division when he died in a Humvee accident near Khalis, north of Baghdad, according to The Associated Press. He had served in northern Iraq for eight months last year and was deployed again in February.
Kenny’s parents, James and Jackie Kenny of Merritt Island, Florida, said their son was devoted to the Army.
“Back in 1993, when there was a big cutback in the military, Citadel grads who might have gone into the military were offered a chance to stay out,” James Kenny said. “Chris stayed out, but decided later he wanted to try to get back in. His wife, Mitzi, encouraged him.”
A Citadel classmate, Donald Corry, said his most vivid memory of Chris Kenny “was how well-liked he was. He was a Summerall Guard during his senior year, and everyone liked him.”
Another classmate, Palmer Owings of Charleston, said he remembered Kenny as “a strong, strong-spirited guy. If I were to say anything, it would be to say ‘thank you’ for making this sacrifice for all of us in this country.”
James Kenny said his son had to enroll in the Army’s Officers Candidate School to receive a commission, apparently because so many years had passed since he had attended The Citadel. He was commissioned in 2000 and posted to Germany the following year.
“Christopher was so proud to be an American soldier and to be a Citadel graduate,” said his mother. “He had a great philosophy which he took from the last line of Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Ulysses.’
“It reads, ‘To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.'”
According to The Citadel, Kenny was a member of Lima Company at the college where he graduated with a history degree. In addition to his wife and his parents, Kenny is survived by two brothers, Brian Kenny and Gavin Kenny. The funeral with military honors is scheduled for May 26 at Arlington National Cemetery, James Kenny said.
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