Thomas Christensen
Staff Sergeant, United States Army Reserve
February 25, 1961 – December 25, 2003
Age – 42
Atlantic Mine, MI
Operation Iraqi Freedom
652nd Engineer Battalion, United States Army Reserve, Ellsworth, WI
Killed during a mortar attack in Baquba, Iraq
He lived in Brighton and joined the Army at age 19. He was an avid reader, and especially interested in science and engineering. He attended carpentry school while stationed in North Dakota, and was a skilled builder and woodworker. While in the reserves, he supported himself on his carpentry skills in Atlantic Mine in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. During his 18 years in the service, he spent two tours of duty in Germany, where he was a technician on the Patriot and Hawk missile systems. Sent to Iraq, he was part of an engineering battalion that rebuilt a bridge destroyed in the war.
The last time Staff Sgt. Thomas W. Christensen called his oldest brother from Iraq, he was relatively upbeat about life in a war zone. “He had no complaints about being in Iraq. Other than it was kind of hot in the summer,” said Chris Christensen, of Detroit. In the last call, he said “they were shooting at him a lot less. It wasn’t so hot. He wanted me to send him some coffee.” The coffee was in the mail when they received news of his death.