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May 21, 2004 |
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May 21, 2004 |
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West Point 2003 grad killed in Iraq
By C. Clark Ballew
Special to the Pointer View
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CULPEPER,
VA -- Second Lt. Leonard Cowherd, 23, a member of the U.S. Military Academy
Class of 2003, was fatally shot May 16 near Karbala, Iraq.
A
native of
Cowherd
was leading his platoon on the raid of a building holding insurgents when a
sniper fatally shot him. He also received fire from a rocket-propelled grenade,
according to Defense Department officials.
Assigned
to the Army’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored
Division, Cowherd was a platoon leader responsible for four tanks and 16 men,
most older than he.
The
platoon was encamped on Baghdad Island for the last several weeks, but was
recently thought to be on the move, said his father, Culpeper resident Lenny
Cowherd. Karbala is approximately 68 miles southwest of Baghdad.
“From
what I’ve been told, they had recently been moved from Baghdad Island to an
area called the Green Zone,” his father said. “The feeling was he would be
safer in the Green Zone; however, the catch was his platoon was on reserve for
when something went bad.”
After
his graduation from West Point last May, the Army sent Cowherd to Fort Knox,
Ky., for five months of Abrams tank training. He then deployed to Iraq in early
2004.
Originally
scheduled to return home at the end of this month, Cowherd received an extension
in April that would have kept him in Iraq until August.
Cowherd
leaves behind a wife of less than a year, Sarah Cerri Cowherd of
Funeral
arrangements have yet to be arranged.
Editor’s
note: This article appeared in Tuesday’s Culpeper Star-Exponent and is
reprinted with permission.