An Officer and a Gentleman.

Following are some words by Louise Teal, who lost her son
Capt. John R. Teal, in Baqubah, Iraq, on October 23, 2003:

I'd like you to have met him for he would have put a smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart. When he was out of uniform, he was truly the "life of the party". That is, when he got to the party, the party started. It has been said of him, "J.R. never met a stranger!" However, when he put on the uniform of our Country he was 100% business. That business to him wasn't to wage war, but rather to maintain peace and rebuild the torn nation of Iraq. It was said of him, "John was a soldier's soldier and an officer's officer!" And he truly was an officer and a gentleman in very much of an old Southern traditional manner, which is very much abandoned today.I was astounded at the variety of persons from whom we received letters of condolence and praise. There were those from Generals, the Secretary of Defense, President Bush, the Office of the Joint Chiefs, and the Commander of the Fourth Division and heads of many organizations. As much as we appreciated all of them taking the time out of their busy days, the words which touched our hearts were those that began, "you don't know me, but..." These total strangers had to read about our son somewhere, buy a card or write a letter and then attempt to find our address. They did this for one reason only - because they genuinely cared about the loss of a son of America and felt he was in some strange way their own. At the present time we have received over 1,000 pieces of mail. Some persons correspond with me daily still to this day.

Our son, Captain John Robert Teal was born in Hanover County, Virginia on April 17, 1972. He arrived a bit early and was one of the ugliest newborns I ever laid eyes on. I guess that's why I believe in butterflies so much because he turned into the cutest little boy. He was a very sickly, small boy until his teens. Even as a grown man he was not big in physical stature, but strikingly handsome. His character made up for any shortcomings in size. He was fiercely patriotic, loved music, comedy, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Dave Matthews, Bob Hope, "MASH" and most of all his friends, family and Brother Rats. From a rocky beginning he transformed himself into a competition swimmer and Tri-Athlete. He participated in the Iron Man competition in Sydney, Australia several years ago. John was a 1994 graduate of Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia. While stationed in Hawaii, he earned the Army Field Medics Badge and completed the run section of it in record time. This medal is not frequently given as it requires a grueling qualification test. He had three Army Accommodation Medals, and three Army Achievement Medals. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star posthumously.

John had been home over Christmas and for four days we avoided that conversation no mother wants to have with a child - "what do you want us to do if..." He was packing to leave and I came to the doorway and just stood there watching. He looked up and said come on in and let's have that talk you've been avoiding. Then he began to tell me that he had everything all written out and his accountant would help us to settle his affairs if he didn't make it back. He said, "Mom I have everything fixed so that you and Dad and Liz (his sister) will never have any financial worries." I told him that didn't concern me, I just would be worried about him. He stopped me and said, "just listen, first I want to be buried in Arlington with full military honors and in my formal dress blues. I want a simple stone just like the other guys, nothing fancy. Just something that will say that I was here." As I left the room, I knew I would never see him alive again after he left. I am not just saying that for drama or whatever, I really knew somehow. There are friends of mine who will tell you that I related that feeling to them the day he left. He was only 31 years, 6 months and 6 days old when he died. His 32nd birthday would have been April 17, 2004. He is still very much alive in my heart.

I remember him talking to us while he was in Iraq about one of his men being killed. He said, "there was a little paragraph in the paper, that was all and the world went on without skipping a beat." Some of his men have told us how down he was about the lack of recognition and respect that this soldier's passing had received. They decided that Cpt. Teal would not go unnoticed or forgotten. That would have been difficult to do as he had a magnetic personality and he genuinely cared about his men and saw to their welfare.Some of the things he felt about the Iraqi Mission can best be said in his own words.

From a journal entry dated 7 July 03 - "Tonight we took more mortars. We lost another soldier tonight and what is even more disappointing is that it was due to an accidental discharge. He had a magazine in his weapon and unknowingly chambered a round and fired it off into the back of a soldier next to him. The round ricocheted inside the soldier and left little chance for survival. Someone got a copy of Terminator 3 and we watched it tonight. Everyone was pretty pumped for the movie and we all enjoyed it although it was a major rip-off of the previous one. Just a few minutes after the movie was over we heard a loud whack, we all looked at each other trying to decide if it was an incoming round or an outgoing one since we had fired some artillery earlier in the night. I looked at George Wood (a fellow Captain I work with) and said, "that was incoming” everyone started saying - get your shit on and we all started moving to get our body armor and helmets on. I was walking fast and started to move into a little run on the way to my tent and then I heard a loud whack off to my left and felt a little bit of the concussion. That close of an impact caused me to let out an expletive and duck as I ran into my tent as I hurried to put on my gear. All of the recent mortar attacks have been focused on the Brigade TOC. Even though the TOC has not been hit it is obvious that it is their target because of all the rounds have hit in its vicinity and none have been directed at any other parts of the camp. This leads me to believe that someone we know or have let into the camp knows or knows someone who knows someone who did these attacks. We are focusing our information operations on highlighting all the good that we do for these people and that they need to help us defeat these criminals and turn them over so we can all make local life safer and better. These were very close about 75 meters away from our headquarters perimeter." [Note: Cpt. George Wood was killed in action November 20, 2003]

9 July 03 - "Tonight the Brigade lost another soldier - a combat patrol from our Army Reserve Bridging Unit returning from town (Baqubah) was ambushed on what we now call "RPG Alley". He was in the trail vehicle of a convoy that was taking some small arms fire. Then his vehicle took an RPG. The convoy continued on under fire to our camp not realizing that the last vehicle hadn't made it in. A Captain who was in the vehicle and got thrown from it had been picked up with another soldier by an Iraqi truck passing by and brought them to our Tactical Operations Center. The Captain gave his report and there was a scramble to find the missing vehicle and the rest of the soldiers who were in it. We were all worried after the recent capture and murder of two soldiers at another units flash checkpoint nights before. After a quick reaction force and patrol went out they recovered the vehicle, a slightly injured soldier, and the dead soldier."

When you read the above and realize that Captain Wood would be dead less than five months later and that John was in essence telling the soon to be story of his own demise, it takes on a chilling sense of reality. Indeed it gives reality a whole new meaning.

When my son left home in December of 2002, I knew I would never see him alive again. I had to force myself to hug him goodbye as I felt death all around him. I knew it would happen, just not when and I absolutely don't have a clue how I knew. I just did!He also knew he was about to die. In an email conversation way into the early morning hours of October 23, 2003, he asked his sister to please keep talking to him. He told her for the first time in his life, he was scared that he would die very soon. She was startled to hear him talk like this as it wasn't his usual demeanor. At that point she tried to boost his morale and dismissed it as his being very tired. Unfortunately he was right. He did know...

Capt. John R. Teal, US Army - Ft. Hood, Texas 4th Infantry, 2nd BDE, HHC Unit 92605 Graduate of Virginia Military Institute 1994 Son of Emmie Louise & Joseph S. Teal, Jr. of Montpelier, Virginia. Sister, Elizabeth L. Kormanyos Visit his memorial at Fallen Heroes Memorial