Local Iraq casualty mourned

By GUY KOVNER and PAUL PAYNE

Jim Kilpatrick of Rohnert Park wants his son to be remembered "as a hero - as a man who did what he wanted to do."

Based on the outpouring of e-mails from around the world, "I can tell he was loved by everyone," said his mother, Patty Ann Foley of Santa Rosa.

The divorced couple had a tearful reunion Tuesday at a memorial service in Petaluma for their son, Christian F. Kilpatrick, a Sonoma County native who was killed Saturday in an ambush in Iraq while working on a security detail for a civilian contractor.

Kilpatrick, 25, a former Army Ranger sergeant, died instantly when rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire struck the vehicle he was driving on a reconnaissance mission about 30 miles northeast of Tikrit, said representatives of CSC/Dyncorp of El Segundo, which employed him.

"All of the fire was concentrated on our vehicle," Scott McMillan wrote in an e-mail to Foley that was posted in the funeral chapel Tuesday. McMillan said he was in the passenger seat of the vehicle Kilpatrick was driving, leading a convoy of three vehicles occupied by eight Americans and five Iraq security men.

"I can assure you that Christian felt no pain," McMillan wrote. "He never knew we got hit."

After returning fire, the convoy sped away and headed straight to a first aid station, said Mike Dickerson, CSC/Dyncorp spokesman. Another American in the same vehicle as Kilpatrick and McMillan was wounded and will recover, the company said.

About 150 friends and family members attended the memorial service at a Petaluma funeral home. Kilpatrick's flag-draped casket was still in Kuwait, awaiting shipment home for a funeral, with full military honors, scheduled for May 20 at Pleasant Hills Cemetery in Sebastopol.

"Everybody who goes by stops and salutes him," Foley said, her voice quavering as she met reporters briefly before the service.

"Be strong," Foley told Tara Scott, Kilpatrick's girlfriend, who was meeting the family for the first time after flying in from Michigan.

"He was very proud of what he was doing," said Scott, who met Kilpatrick on New Year's Eve. "He loved life."

Kilpatrick had planned to bring Scott home to meet his family in July and the couple was planning to pick out furniture for a home in Petaluma, Foley said.

Jim Kilpatrick embraced Scott for the first time outside the funeral home. "I've seen your picture," he said.

Kilpatrick, wearing an American flag shirt, held a large photo of his son in his Army uniform, as they embraced. They then went into the service away from cameras and reporters.

Christian Kilpatrick, born in Penngrove and schooled in San Rafael, Novato and Sacramento, had served four years as a Ranger before he was hired March 2 by CSC/Dyncorp in Iraq.

A member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Bravo Company, Kilpatrick served two tours in Afghanistan and two in Iraq, his family said. He and a high school friend, Matt Markham of San Anselmo, joined the military together in 1999.

"He's one of those you can't really tell what to do," Jim Kilpatrick said of his son.

Kilpatrick was part of a security detail for another private contractor who was restoring electricity in different parts of Iraq, Dickerson said. He declined to elaborate, saying it could compromise security.

In his e-mail, McMillan said the convoy was "trying to find a safer route to transport the people that we protect."

The ambush occurred between Tikrit and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Another e-mail posted in the chapel was from Rick Weaver, who said he had dinner with Kilpatrick the night before the ambush and was with him during the attack.

"I was with your son, in the same ambush, and could assure you that I couldn't have had a better gunslinger to go to the fight with," Weaver wrote. "We have thought this over and over and couldn't understand why God has decided that it was his time."

In closing his message to Kilpatrick's parents, Weaver wrote: "I am truly sorry for your loss. Christian left a void that I don't think will ever be filled here."

Kilpatrick's death marked the first CSC/Dyncorp fatality in Iraq from hostile fire, Dickerson said.

The company, which provides police and security services worldwide, had three agents killed in Kosovo in April and another three killed in October 2003 on the Gaza Strip. In that incident, the employees were providing security for a State Department convoy that was bombed, Dickerson said.

"Our security professionals in Iraq and elsewhere are courageous individuals who often work under dangerous conditions," Dickerson said.

CSC/Dyncorp has 400 employees in Iraq filling a number of roles, including civilian police officers, police trainers, information technology workers and security agents, Dickerson said.

The company recruits former soldiers, especially those trained in special forces or special operations, Dickerson said.

A company Web site lists qualifications for jobs in Iraq, including the ability to use a semi-automatic handgun. All employees receive training and are advised of safety risks before getting assignments, Dickerson said.

"Certainly people going over to perform a security function are made aware of the risk inherent in that function," he said.

Dickerson said did not know the terms of Kilpatrick's contract or his salary.

The New York Times has reported about 20,000 private security contractors are in Iraq, augmenting a U.S. military presence of 130,000.

Contractors guard reconstruction projects, provide security for Coalition Provisional Authority officials, escort supply convoys through hostile territory and defend key locations, including the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, the center of American power in Iraq.

From: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/news/05memorial_a1_2.html