CLINTON, IN, USA U.S. Army SSG, 1ST BRIGADE, 1ST INFANTRY DIVISION (TRANSITION TEAM), FORT RILEY, KS TARIN KOWT, AFGHANISTAN 06/16/2007
Roy Persimmon Lewsader Jr. attended school in Vermillion County. He entered active Army in September 1993. His home of record is Clinton, Indiana.
He loved music and played the guitar. When he packed his bags for deployment, Lewsader dismantled his guitar so he could take it with him. It wasn’t long before he called his wife, Melissa, from Afghanistan and told her he had forgotten to pack his guitar amplifier.
She remembers her husband asking, “Can you send the amp?” Lewsader Jr., 36, was killed by a bomb blast June 16 in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. He was assigned to Fort Riley, Kan. He did two tours of duty in Korea and was on his second tour of Afghanistan.
“I am so proud of him. He’s done what he’s wanted to do since he was 6 or 7 years old. He died doing what he wanted to do. He died for his friends,” said Beverly Price, his mother.
Mark Lewsader, a younger brother, said he got a thrill out of aggravating his older sibling. “I picked on him and teased him about his hair, the way he ate or slept, just about anything I could think of,” Mark Lewsader said. “I don’t claim him as a hero, I claim him as a brother.”
Roy is remembered as a good kid, great father and husband and devoted serviceman who did all he could for his fellow man and his country and his kids.
In addition to his wife Melissa, Roy also is survived by four daughters, Briana, Ozzra’D, Cheyenne and Keebee and a son, Billy.
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