JEFFERSON, KY, US
U. S. Army
PFC, CO D, 1ST BN, 4TH INF REGT, HOHENFELS, GERMANY
07/06/2010, QALAT, AFGHANISTAN
Deidre and Michael got married just days before Michael was deployed. Michael was supposed to be back home in just six weeks, close to when the couple is expecting their first child. “He was real excited,” said Deidre. “I mean, he wanted a boy. But, he got used to it being a girl.”
The newly married couple spoke twice a day, everyday on the phone. Deidre said Michael would always talk about how much he was looking forward to coming home. We “talked about what we would do when he got back and just asked me how I was doing. He asked about the baby all the time.” Deidre will tell their daughter Aliyah Marie how much her father loved video games, had lots of friends, and was a Cards fan, (and) that her father died a hero.
Michael Shane Pridham Sr. explained: “Mikey was more of a man at 19 years old because of the Army than most men I know. He died doing something he believed in and did not die in vain.”
Today, although details are still sketchy, we learned that Mikey was killed in Afghanistan by a suicide bomber. This young man was barely old enough to vote, not even old enough to legally enjoy a cold beer and so young that he still used a “y” at the end of his name. But he chose to enter the Army to make a better life for himself (and his brand-new wife and a baby due to be born any day now) and get away from a potential life of drugs and gangs. Thom often wrote to me about how much he admired Mikey for pulling himself out of his surroundings. They were truly brothers-in-arms.
Please Don’t Weep
If from this conflict I do not return, Do not cry and weep for me But know that in God’s plan, His Heaven is where I should be.
I know that God did not wish me harm, Or this wound inflict upon my frame, But long before the earth was formed, The Father knew my name.
I choose the path that I would take, Of my own precious free will- It was the one that I had to take, And I would choose it still.
It matters not that I went sooner, Than some would wish for me, For all of you I dearly love, Will join me for eternity.
I made the choice to be the one, To offer my life this way, In order to protect the land I love And keep the enemy far away.
-Thena Smith
May God hold you in the hollow of His hand, Mikey! From Peggy Marsh, Thom’s mother. Thom was PFC Pridham’s friend in the Army.