Gregory J. Fester

Major, United States Army

March 12, 1964 – August 30, 2005
Age – 41
Ada, MI

Operation Iraqi Freedom
U.S. Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC

Killed by an Improvised Explosive Devise while on patrol in Iskandariyah, Iraq

“But as a soldier, he was ready to step up and do his duty. He truly had the desire to make the world a better place.”

“He was doing the greatest mission of all for the good of mankind everywhere.”

U.S. Army Major Gregory Fester, 41, a reservist assigned to the Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, was “fighting at the tip of the spear,” working in the dangerous Sunni Triangle when he was killed.

Greg was helping rebuild the schools for the children in Iraq. Fester, a native of Westerville, Ohio, near Columbus, attended Ohio State University. He spent 81/2 years in the Army and was a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, in which he earned the Bronze Star, among other honors.

Greg left the military in 2002 after he moved to Michigan for his civilian job and was reclassified as “individual ready reserve.”

In April, a presidential executive order called Fester and others back to service. He left for Iraq just after July 4 for a tour that was scheduled to last until November 2006.

“He believed in what he was doing,” his wife said. “The schools over there were rubble. His job was to go into the schools and to rebuild the high schools and elementary schools.”

Fester talked with mayors of Iraqi communities and Islamic clerics and used the information they gave him to line up contractors for construction, she said.

“He really felt they were making a difference.”

Fester was with five other soldiers when the roadside bomb exploded.

Fester, who was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.