Shin W. Kim

Died: June 28, 2007

Rank: Sergeant

Unit: 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division

Branch: U.S. Army

Sergeant Shin W. Kim was killed on June 28, 2007, when insurgents using makeshift bombs in Baghdad, Iraq, attacked his unit. Only 23 years old, the young medic served with the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colorado. Kim’s brother, Josh, said he did not die immedi­ately from the attack. A doctor in Iraq held a telephone to Kim’s ear as his family bid the unconscious Soldier goodbye from their Fullerton home. Brigadier General Butch Tate flew to California from Virginia to represent the Army at Kim’s funeral. At his gravesite, hundreds of mourners released white balloons into the sky in his honor. He was buried with full military honors at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.