Cinci Heroes

This month we have chosen to honor a fallen hero. Sergeant David Kenneth John Kreuter died in Iraq August 3^rd, 2005. He was one of the fourteen Marines killed in an amphibious vehicle destroyed by a roadside bomb.

 David became interested in serving in the Marines during his senior year at St. Xavier (1997). He wanted to serve, and he wanted to serve with “the best”. He joined the Marine Reserves in October, 1998, splitting time between college and the Marines for six years. He attended Ohio University and graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. 

Here is a little overview of David’s Marine career:  He joined the Marines after his first year of college. His basic training and infantry training were at San Diego, CA; he was extremely proud that his platoons were Honor Platoon at both levels of training. David was a proud member of Lima Company, 3/25 Marines, based in Columbus, Ohio. He was an eager and prepared Marine in monthly drills and annual training exercises, and pursued the continuing study required by the Marines, attaining the rank of Corporal.  He wanted to be “the best” as part of “the best”, and always prepared himself mentally and physically for the tasks at hand.  In 2004, David participated in a six-month UNITAS deployment, training in Peru with elite military units from several countries in South America.  In 2005, Lima Company was activated on Jan. 3, and deployed to Iraq the first week of March.  According to his fellow Marines, David was meticulous in his preparation for his duties, and frequently volunteered for extra patrols and responsibilities.  He completed the requirements for promotion to Sergeant July 1, 2005.  David planned to attend Officer Candidate School after his return from Iraq, and pursue training in intelligence and languages.

Now, a little about his family life; David was the only son of Pat Murray and Ken Kreuter (of Miami Township, Hamilton County). He was a role model to his two younger sisters, Kristin Kreuter and Laura Kreuter. He was married on September 10^th, 2004 to Chrystina Kreuter and had a son, Christian Oskar Hans Kreuter, on June 14^th, 2005. David was anxious to meet his son when he arrived back to Cincinnati but several weeks before he was scheduled to come home, he died for our country.

 

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the families who have lost someone who was fighting for our country. We also give our thanks to all the fallen heroes.

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the death of Staff Sgt Greg Rogers who grew up in Deer Park and died in Iraq serving our country. Here’s a link to a story done in 2008 by the Dayton Daily news. Greg’s brother Kevin Rogers serves on the Deer Park – Silverton Fire Dept. http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/03/20/pjw032008warannrogers.html?cxntlid=inform_artr

Mark Federle

The First ‘Hero of the Month’

Our first ‘Hero of the Month’ is a close personal friend of ours Mark Federle.  Mark is married to Nancy Steman/Federle who we have known since she was born!  Nancy also served our community as a volunteer firefighter and EMS in the City of Silverton for years before she married Mark and began her family.  Nancy acquired her desire to serve from her father, Paul Steman who was the Fire Chief and Service Director for the City of Silverton for many years.

There is so much to Mark’s story that it could be pages and pages long but we will try to give you the ‘readers digest’ version. 

Mark joined the military in September 1987 full time because he wanted to serve his country.  He actually wanted to join right out of high school but his parents would not sign the paperwork necessary.  So…he went to college and obtained a drafting degree.  He was then old enough to join without his parents’ consent so he did!  He joined the Army and served in an engineering unit as a draftsman and ended up in Germany.

Then Dessert Storm broke out…he was sent to Saudi Arabia for 6-8 months.

In 1991 Mark decided he wanted to be home and try civilian life but joined the Army National Guard to satisfy his need to serve.  He also returned to college in September 1992 and now has an architectural and engineering degree taking advantage of the GI bill.

Mark met Nancy in September 11, 1992 on a blind date.  They married in October 1994 and promptly began a family…their first boy was born on October of 1995 – the fourth was born March 2000.  This chain of events (or pregnancies) took its toll on Nancy.  Unfortunately, Nancy suffered a heart attack one week after the fourth boy was born.  She required open heart surgery.  We were impressed with Mark and Nancy’s ability to take this all in stride.  Nancy’s family was a big help during this time too.  She has two sisters that could not be more supportive.  They are a very strong family that loves each other unconditionally.

 That same year (2000) Mark began working full time for the Army National Guard as a recruiter. He worked several years in that position.  In February of 2005 (in order to be an officer) Mark resigned as a recruiter and was granted a’ Direct Commission’.  He moved his family to Columbus, Ohio from Cincinnati for this position as a lieutenant. 

 In June of 2006 Mark was deployed with C Troop 2-107 CAV (Greenville Unit) to Iraq he returned in October 2007.

When he returned he continued working until Feb 09 when he began training for his 2^nd deployment to Iraq…

 While Mark has been serving, Nancy has been ‘serving’ in her own way.  In June of 2006, Nancy joined the ‘Family Readiness Group’.  This group was originally the ‘Family Support Group’ but once Nancy got involved it evolved!  We are not sure that this group knew what they were getting with Nancy but she is known to be a ‘pit bull’ when it comes to organizing and fundraising! 

 In November of 2008 Nancy accepted the position of  ‘Family Readiness Group Leader’.  Some of her many accomplishments as the leader are:

• Sending out Monthly Newsletters to all of the deployed soldiers’ families.
• Holding Monthly Meetings
• Sending each soldier a ‘birthday box’ from home
• Sending each new baby in the unit a blanket with the child’s name and birth date on it
• Coordinating efforts with ‘Operation Homefront’,  Sears and Dollar Tree to provide Easter Baskets, Stuffed Backpacks, Mothers Day Gifts, and Christmas Gifts for every family
• Worked with ‘United through Reading’ to set up the program to provide a link between soldiers and their children.  She got a donation from Scholastic Books to provide books to the soldiers that correspond to the books their children have at home so that they could read along with their children.
•  Worked with ‘Reynolds and Reynolds’ to have bikes donated for all of the children of the deployed soldiers
•  Assisted several families with help for Christmas ‘adoption’ by Civic Groups
•  Coordinated orders of ‘Welcome Home’ Tee Shirts and Yellow Ribbons for families

All of these items have been donated to the group thanks to Nancy’s extreme ability to convince people and corporations to give to this wonderful cause.  She is a dynamo to put it mildly! 

 Anyway, back to Mark…he was deployed in May of 2009 to Iraq again!  We are very excited for his entire family to say that he is returning on March 18^th….and they are planning a big welcome home!

 In summary, we want to thank Mark for continuing to serve our country.  He has missed so many important days in his sons’ lives because of his dedication.  We simply cannot say enough about this guy!  He was our inspiration for ‘cinciheroes’…and we realize that Mark inspires people he touches everyday!  This is just our way of expressing our heartfelt thanks for all that he and his family have endured.  Mark is truly a ‘CINCIHERO !!

My wife, Kay, and I have searched for way to say thank you to all of those who risk their lives on a daily basis to keep us safe, i.e. Military, Police, or Fire/EMS. As the owners of Craftsman Electric, we have decided to dedicate this blog to the men and women who serve our country at home and abroad. We want to develop another avenue to share our appreciation and welcome you to share your appreciation as well.

It is our intention to share with you a ‘Hero of the Month’ profile. We will ask that you nominate any person or persons that you feel have sacrificed themselves to serve us. They may be a loved one, friend, co-worker, etc. We feel that sometimes in life we wait too long to say a thank you to someone who deserves it. 

All of those who dedicate their lives to serve have some type of story that makes them different. We want to hear those stories. Please share with all of us what makes your nominee special.

Our hope is that the CinciHeroes blog will take on a life of its own and become a way for us all to say thank you. 

Charlie & Kay Fischer