MCKEES ROCKS, PA, USA
U.S. Army
SSG, CO B, 1ST BN, 10TH SPECIAL FORCES GROUP, BOEBLINGEN, GERMANY
BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN 11/10/2007
Staff Sergeant Patrick Kutschbach was from the western Pennsylvania, McKees Rocks area. He was a 2000 graduate of Montour High School where he was an all-state volleyball player during his senior year. He won several championships and coached the team for three years after graduating. Patrick’s high school community notes appreciation for his work with their volleyball program and remembers him as the kind of person who could make a joke out of just about anything even in the worst of situations. This ability was an appreciated gift.
Twenty-five year old, SSG Kutschbach died November 10, 2007 in Afghanistan from wounds sustained when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire in Tagab, the Defense Department said. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, at Stuttgart, Germany. His unit was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Kutschbach had deployed on previous operations, but this was his first deployment to Afghanistan.
Friends remember when Patrick announced in 2003 that he’d done something crazy. That crazy thing was that he had joined the Army. Patrick had chosen to be a Special Forces candidate and within a year had completed SF training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and had earned his Breen Beret in 2004. By December 2006, SSG Kutschbach was assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group at Panzer Kaserne, Boeblingen, Germany.
His awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart, and a special honor demonstrated by the renaming of a forwarding operating base that now bears Patrick’s last name.
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