BLUE ISLAND, IL, USA U.S. Army CPT, TROOP B, 3D SQUADRON, 73D CAVALRY REGIMENT, 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION, FORT BRAGG, NC ASH SHUMALI, IRAQ 01/31/2008
Captain David Schultz was a Paratrooper. He died on January 31, 2008 when the Convoy Support Center at Scania, Iraq was attacked by indirect enemy fire. He was part of the 3d Squadron, 73d Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team of Fort Bragg’s 82d Airborne Division. Captain Shultz supported the Operation Iraqi Freedom efforts.
David Schultz was a twenty-five year old resident from Blue Island, Illinois. He was a Platoon Leader and a vital part of his organization. His Commander said that David’s standards of leadership, his resolve and professionalism were benchmarks by which other measured themselves.
David graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2005 and joined the Army the same year and was assigned to the 82d a year later. A soldier’s soldier, David didn’t mind rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty to accomplish whatever the mission. And to David, it was not just for the sake of the mission, but for the sake of the soldiers he led.
David’s leadership extended beyond the military and into the communities where he found himself. In November 2007, David was featured in the news publication “Daily Southtown” for his work collecting school materials and soccer balls for Iraqi children. Assisted by his high school Spanish teacher Michelle Alfano, they were able to deliver several shipments of these materials to local Iraqi children. He noted in an email about this effort that just seeing the smiles on the children’s faces when you brought them needed school supplies was one of the greatest things he’d experienced there.
When Captain Schultz deployed to Kuwait, his wife Sabrina was pregnant with baby Logan, who was soon thereafter born on Father’s Day. David met his new son when Logan during Christmas leave. Having missed Logan’s birth, that Christmas was especially wonderful.
Family says of David that he started out as a shy, quiet little boy and blossomed into a wonderful, caring young man. David enjoyed hunting, fishing, and country music. He was very proud of his hometown and Eisenhower High School where he wrestled, and played baseball and football. He was a football defensive lineman starter his senior year despite being a bit smaller than his teammates. He was the perfect kid to coach, and hard worker with an inexhaustible work ethic.
Captain Schultz was extremely patriotic and the last thing David sent to his parents was the Pledge of Allegiance to his US flag and country. He felt it was important to comfort family with those words that he lived by.
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