LILBURN, GA, USA U.S. Army PFC, COMPANY C, 2D BATTALION, 27TH INFANTRY, 3 BCT, SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI RIYADH, IRAQ 09/23/2006
The day after learning of Kenneth E Kincaid IV’s death, his father went outside to hang his American flags at half staff when he says he spotted his son watching him.
I saw the most elegant of pink, blue, purple, white and orange sunsets I have ever seen and realized with a profound rush of inner tranquility. You are my sunset and will forever be there in my every sunrise and every sunset, wrote Kenneth E. Skip Kincaid III.
Yeah, corny I know, and this from the dad who bored you with so many thousands of sunset slides as you were growing up. I now realize what the awesome sunsets really are – they are the smiles of all our loved ones, if you just relax and watch.
Kincaid, 25, of Lilburn, Ga., was killed Sept. 23 in Riyadh when his vehicle struck an explosive. He was assigned to Schofield Barracks.
He didn’t talk much about the war, his father said. He would either wistfully recall the fishing trips he took with his little girls. Or talk at length about the Harley-Davidson Road King he had set his eyes on buying after his tour of duty.
Kincaid was a member of the 3rd Brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry. Kincaid had enlisted last year because he wanted a better life for his two girls, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. He and his wife, Rachel, have two daughters, Abi, 3; and Keni, 5.
“He didn’t tell us in so many words why he enlisted, but he was married and he wanted a better career for his family,” his father told the Georgia newspaper. “Everyone was concerned (about the war), but he had made up his mind and we respected his wishes.”
Kincaid didn’t talk much about the war, his father said. But three days before his death, Kincaid sent an e-mail to his father.
“Hi, how are you. Everything over here is fine,” his father recalled it saying. “Who am I kidding? This is terrible. I hate seeing guys getting blown up. I guess I am one of the lucky ones. Thank God.”
In addition to his father, wife and children, Kincaid is also survived by his mother, Marcia, and his younger brother, Marc.
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