KEELAN MOSS - IN MEMORIAM -

Sgt. Keelan Moss died in the service of his country on Nov. 2, 2003 when the Army Chinook helicopter he was riding in was shot down near Fallujah, Iraq. The helicopter was carring 16 soldiers to the Baghdad International Airport where the soldiers were to fly home for an early Thanksgiving.

Sgt. Moss was part of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Field Artillery Regiment of the III Corps Artillery, headquartered at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He had entered the service on July 22, 1998, and arrived at Fort Sill on Jan. 5, 2000. His unit deployed to the Middle East in April of 2003.

Family and friends attended his funeral November 15 at the Greater Second Baptist Church in Little Rock where he was remembered as a devoted husband and loving father. His wife of less than a year, Jenifer Moss, said her husband was an amazing man and gifted writer. "I lost my one true love," she said. "I'm not going to cry because my husband admired me for being a strong woman, and I don't want to let him down." Moss, who had a son named Keelan Daniel, 4, had planned to adopt his wife's children, Marjani, 8, and Dakari, 7. "I couldn't have asked for a better son," said Moss' mother, Velma Deawayne, an Aldine school district teacher. "I know that he is really truly at home."

Sgt. Moss went to his rest as a bugler played Taps in the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock. In the closing ceremony, Jenifer Moss, with tears in her eyes, received the flag that draped Moss' casket.

A true Ike Eagle has passed on.

Keelan Moss
1980 - 2003

Keelan in Iraq

Keelan and his wife, Jenifer

(Updated 11/03)