Joshua Wheeler.
The Pentagon yesterday announced that the American special forces officer who died during the hostage rescue operation in Iraq two days ago was identified as Joshua Wheeler, 39 years old.
According to the New York Times, Wheeler is an experienced soldier with 14 campaigns in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Born in a remote, economically underdeveloped area of Oklahoma, USA, Wheeler had to go through a difficult childhood and grow up with very few options in life.
`Young people here, if they don’t go to college, either work on oil rigs or join the army,` said Jack Shamblin, Wheeler’s uncle.
After joining the army, he gradually proved himself to be a person with the right qualities for this job.
`Wheeler was always proud of his job. He was always proud to be a soldier,` said Elizabeth Brown, Wheeler’s aunt, crying while reminiscing about her nephew.
Wheeler’s protective instincts appeared at an early age.
Wheeler’s mother, Diane, has divorced two husbands, both of whom were abusive.
Rachel Quackenbush, one of Wheeler’s younger sisters, shared that images of her parents seemed to `not exist in her mind`.
He took care of his younger siblings’ every meal, bought them decent clothes, and tried to make sure they all went to school.
Soon realizing his great responsibility, he took on all kinds of part-time jobs such as roofing houses or working at blueberry farms to have some extra money to make ends meet.
Quackenbush, 30, remembers visiting her eldest brother’s house when she was a child.
Wheeler graduated from Muldrow High School in 1994. People at the school were unaware of the family troubles he was having.
`He’s very funny, it’s true that he’s mischievous, but he’s always shown to be a trustworthy friend,` said April Isa, Wheeler’s former classmate who is now an English teacher at Muldrow School.
Wheeler joined the army in 1995 and after only two years was recruited into the US Army special forces.
`He is always highly focused and clearly understands his mission,` commented an officer who was Wheeler’s superior.
`He was someone you could trust with your life,` said one of Wheeler’s teammates.
Wheeler has two wives.
`He never talked specifically about where he went or what he did, but it was easy to see how much he loved his job,` Mr. Shamblin said.
Whenever he returned home, whether it was in his hometown of Oklahoma or the North Carolina barracks, he always spent time with his children and family.
Quackenbush said, every time she was about to participate in a new campaign, her brother said he was going for training.