STAFFORD, VA, U.S.A.
U.S. MARINE CORPS
SSGT,2D CEB(FWD),2D MARDIV, CAMP LEJEUNE, NC
06/20/2014, HELMAND PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
SSGT Stewart, 34, was a platoon sergeant from Stafford, VA who joined the Marine Corps in June 2004. This was SSGT Stewart’s second deployment to Afghanistan. He had also deployed three times to Iraq.
Stewart graduated from North Stafford High School and still considered Stafford his home. Nelson Stewart, David’s father, described his son as a”warm loving person.”
David met Kristine when they were in middle school in Stafford. They began dating as juniors in high school. The two married and have 2 children.“He was the most joyous father you could ever know,” Kristine Stewart said. “He had such a sparkle in his eyes when he looked at his beautiful children.”
“We’ve been together since we were teenagers and he’s always been positive,” Kristine Stewart said.
“It didn’t matter what was going on. All the joys in our life and then the hardships that come with five deployments; he just was my rock. He always put us first.”
SSGT Stewart followed his father’s and brother’s military career paths. “It was all about serving something that was bigger than ourselves and doing the right thing. I fell in love with him when I was 16 years old because he was like that as a teen, and he just carried that on,” Kristine Stewart explained.
“He just had so much fun. Gosh, he would come home with this light in his eyes,” Kristine Stewart said of her husband’s early days in the reserves, before September 11, before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Even after he went to war, five times over, David Stewart remained upbeat. “He just was so proud to be a Marine and so proud to serve his country, and I was just so proud of him,” Kristine Stewart added.
Comments