R.I.P. Sgt. Jeremiah T. Wittman

Army Sgt. Jeremiah T. Wittman
Died February 13, 2010 serving during Operation Enduring Freedom

26, of Darby, Mont.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.; died Feb. 13 of wounds sustained when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device in Zhari province, Afghanistan. Also killed were Staff Sgt. John A. Reiners and Spc. Bobby J. Pagan.

(The following was taken from www.greatfallstribune.com) (AP) — A soldier from Darby was killed by a suicide bomber while on patrol in Afghanistan over the weekend.

The family of Sgt. Jeremiah Wittman, 26, said he died Saturday.

"He told me he was going out on a mission for three days and he would be safe," his mother, Cynthia Church, told The Billings Gazette on Monday. "He said: 'Don't worry, Mom. They don't scare me. I'm a super soldier.'"

Wittman, a member of the 12th Infantry Regiment, was serving his second deployment in the Middle East.

His wife, Karyn, and their 3-year-old daughter, Miah, were living in South Carolina with her family while Wittman was deployed. Another daughter, 7-year-old Arieana, lives with her grandmother in Wyoming.

"He only had two months left over there and was so looking forward to coming home and being with his girls," said Wittman's aunt, Kari Dvorak.

Robert Wittman said he has a picture of his son with five of his Army buddies, and four of them are now dead.

"He kept calling me every week and saying, 'I'm still alive. I'm still alive,'" Robert Wittman said. "He just kept losing friends."

Wittman attended elementary and middle school in Billings before moving with his mother to Powell, Wyo., for a time. He graduated from Trapper Creek High in Darby and enlisted in the Army in 2004.

Wittman is also survived by his sisters Charity and Jenell.

"He had a huge heart," said Jenell Wittman. "No matter what, he could always make you laugh or smile."