CLAREMORE -- A 28-year-old man
from Claremore, remembered as a devoted soldier from the time he decided to
join up 10 years ago, was killed Wednesday in Iraq.
Army Staff Sgt. Jason R. Hendrix was
killed by hostile fire in Ramadi, Iraq, according to the U.S. Army. He was attached to the 1st Marine Expeditionary
Force in Iraq, and was one of thousands
of soldiers assigned to Camp Hovey, Korea's 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment,
2nd Infantry Division, which was de
ployed to Iraq last year.
It was the first time in 50
years that soldiers had been
moved from Korea to another
area of military operations.
Hendrix grew up mostly in
Northern California, but moved
to Claremore as a teenager and
graduated from high school
there. His father, Russell Hendrix, is still in Claremore; he
could not be reached Friday.
"The family is having a rough
time with it," said Mandy Hinds,
who attended high school with
Jason Hendrix and lived next
door to his family.
Hendrix's stepfather, Dan
Amick of Freedom, Calif., told
the Santa Cruz Sentinel that
Hendrix led a 25-man squad
that acted as a decoy so Marine
units in the field could identify
and knock out rebel strongholds.
Mike Hinds, who also attended high school with Hendrix, recalled that in his senior year
Hendrix became "really motivated."
"He decided to go into the
military; he wanted to serve his
country, and he put out a lot of
effort for it. Once he went in,
we hardly saw him."
Hendrix played sports
in high
school -- football and track --
but wasn't an athletic star, Mike
Hinds said.
"He was a good kid," Hinds
said. "We've lost track of each
other, like a lot of people from
high school. But it's a very sad
thing. He really died for our
country. It brings it even closer
to home when you lose someone you know."
Louise Red Corn 581-8480
louise.redcorn@tulsaworld.com
