In the final hours of their lives, four Fort Lewis soldiers were helping save others.

The soldiers from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division had arrived at a cholera-stricken area in the Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, to provide injections to sick villagers.

An hour later, they were dead.

A massive bomb hidden in a culvert underneath the road ripped through their Stryker as they returned to their base on Aug. 25. The blast, detonated as the soldiers were driving back to their base, instantly killed the four on board: Capt. John L. Hallett III, Capt. Cory J. Jenkins, Sgt. 1st Class Ronald W. Sawyer and Spc. Dennis M. Williams.

At a memorial ceremony Wednesday at Fort Lewis, a speaker echoed comments from the fallen’s battalion commander praising them for risking their lives to spread goodwill.

“They were not only executing the infantry task of tying in with the local forces to improve the security situation,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Newman said. “they were also demonstrating our compassion to the people of the Shah Wali Kot district by providing medical expertise.”

The attack was the single deadliest incident involving Fort Lewis soldiers since 2007. The soldiers’ backgrounds resembled the nature of the goodwill mission: Hallett was the company commander, Jenkins was a physician’s assistant, Sawyer was the battalion’s medic platoon sergeant and Williams was the driver.

“We lost a junior soldier with tons of potential who sought training at some of our Army’s toughest schools,” Newman said in a speech repeated by Capt. Franky Kim. “We lost a senior NCO and a steady platoon sergeant, who ensured his soldiers were trained well for combat, so each company could be confident in the medics he sent them.

“We lost a medical professional, new to our Army but who made a positive impact from the day he arrived through the wounded he treated. And we lost a seasoned company commander who followed me to Iraq and played an integral role in the operations and logistics of this battalion in the many months before we deployed.”

The four eulogized as men who loved their families above all else. Hallett had two sons and a daughter, the latter born after he deployed. Jenkins had a months-old daughter. Sawyer had a son and stepdaughter. And Williams had a daughter.

“Life is fragile,” chaplain Col. Kenneth Hegtvedt said. “(They were) certainly well-trained warriors with the best of equipment, but life is fragile. And in that fragileness, we are reminded to treat with honor and respect and dignity those relationships, those friendships that were placed into our lives.”

More than 600 people packed into the Soldiers Field House on Fort Lewis for the service. Fellow soldiers eulogized the fallen. Bagpipers played “Amazing Grace.” An honor guard provided a rifle salute and played taps.

The service was the second in as many weeks at Fort Lewis. The brigade’s first two casualties were honored last week; another three will be eulogized next week.

All nine of the brigade’s deaths have come from the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. And the three deadly incidents all involved roadside bombs, of which the use are steadily on the rise as American troops mount a new offensive against Taliban insurgents in the country’s south.

The 5th Brigade represents a crucial part of the 21,000-person troop buildup to break the stalemate throughout much of Afghanistan. The unit left Fort Lewis in July and is serving throughout Kandahar and Zabul provinces.

After the service, the medic who was first on the scene after the blast was calming his nerves with a cigarette. Pfc. Jeffrey Hodge was in a different Stryker about 12 miles away when the blast occurred. Sawyer was Hodge’s platoon sergeant. Williams slept in the bunk next to him. Hallett was his commander. Jenkins was his physician.

The Taliban rolled a 600-800-pound bomb into the culvert and detonated it with a command wire about a mile away, Hodge said. The Strykers took the same route to and from the village, so the insurgents must have planted it during the medical mission.

The Americans responded by firing a Hellfire missile into the triggerman’s area, killing him instantly. Hodge, home on leave from Afghanistan, still seethes about the attack.

“Right now, I’m feeling a lot of anger,” he said. “Just a lot of anger. So much anger.”

Capt. John L. Hallett III
Hallett, 30, of Concord, Calif., summoned the battalion rear detachment commander into his office days before the unit deployed to Afghanistan in July. He had two requests for Capt. Franky Kim: Hallett wanted constant updates about the soldiers back at Fort Lewis, and he wanted Kim to contact him as quickly as possible after Hallett’s wife gave birth.

“That conversation I had with Capt. Hallett reflected perfectly the kind of man he was,” Kim said Wednesday. “It exemplified not only his eagerness to take care of soldiers, but also the love he devoted to his family.”

Hallett, though, never got a chance to hold his new daughter. Heidi was born weeks after he left for Afghanistan to command Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment.

Hallett, a 2001 graduate of West Point, captained the academy’s water polo team. He deployed to Iraq with a Hawaii-based Stryker brigade in 2005-06 and served at the Joint Readiness Training Center in Louisiana before arriving at Fort Lewis in November 2007.

In Afghanistan, he gained a reputation of befriending anybody near him, including construction workers at Kandahar Air Field and the laundry staff at Forward Operating Base Frontenac, where the unit is based.

He is survived by his wife, Lisa; sons Jackson and Bryce; and their daughter, Heidi.

Capt. Cory J. Jenkins
Jenkins, 30, of Mesa, Ariz., joined the Army because he wanted to heal people. He was a physician’s assistant, and he believed he had no better opportunity to treat trauma victims than in a war zone.

His job primarily involved stabilizing injured soldiers before they were flown to a military hospital in Germany. He joined the Army in 2007 after graduating from A.T. Still University’s physician’s assistant program.

The essence of Army life held big appeal for Jenkins, his friend Staff Sgt. Shane Tracy remembers. When someone asked Jenkins why he joined, the captain summed it up: “Where else can a PA practice medicine, go camping in the woods, drive big trucks, pack heat and get paid on the same day?”

Jenkins was active in his Steilacoom church and served as a Scoutmaster before his deployment. He arrived at the war a few weeks late because his commanders allowed him to spend some time at home with his newborn daughter.

He is survived by his wife, Brooke, and their daughter, Reagan.

Sgt. 1st Class Ronald W. Sawyer
The Army sent Sawyer, 38, of Trenton, Mo., across the world during his almost 17 years in the service. He served at installations in Colorado, Texas, Germany, California and South Korea. He also deployed to Kosovo, Cuba, Grenada and Afghanistan.

He served as the battalion’s medic platoons sergeant. His soldiers had an important task: They went into battle and often were the first ones who could treat the wounded.

“No matter what the situation was, he always seemed to have the answer,” said Sgt. Jacob Travis, speaking behalf of three deployed soldiers.

He also enjoyed tossing a baseball with his 2-year-old son, Daniel.

“He loved playing catch so much, he would say, ‘At this rate, (Daniel) will be playing pro ball by age 6,’” Travis said.

He joined the army in 1993 and reported to Fort Lewis in 2006.

“Ron was always very patriotic, but he didn’t grow up intending to enter the military,” his mother told the Associated Press. “He heard a recruiter at college and that was it for him.”

Sawyer is survived by his wife, Sarah; their son, Daniel; and a stepdaughter.

Spc. Dennis M. Williams
Williams, 24, of Federal Way wanted to become a police officer after leaving the Army and had dreams of joining the FBI, his father said.

“He would’ve been a damn good cop, too,” Dan Williams said earlier this week.

Dennis Williams also had a talent for making people laugh, including impersonations of the company leadership and skits inspired by comedian Dave Chappelle.

Williams was also the first soldier to ask his chaplain about Bible study once they landed in Afghanistan, Col. Kenneth Hegtvedt said.

A friend, Sgt. Michael Eacman, said Williams loved spending time with his wife and two children when he wasn’t at work. Eacman’s and Williams’ families visited Wild Waves theme park in Federal Way together in early July, shortly before the unit deployed.

“The affection he showed his wife, Maria, who was pregnant with Grant, and his daughter, Alaina, showed me he loved them with all of his heart,” Eacman said. “They were inseparable.”

He joined the Army in 2007 and arrived at Fort Lewis in March 2008. This was his first deployment.

Williams is survived by his wife, Maria; an 18-month old daughter, Alaina Maria; and a 2-month-old son, Grant.