Army Ranger Captain Jonathan D. Grassbaugh
August 18, 1981 ~ April 7, 2007
Operation Iraqi Freedom
5th Squadron, 73rd Calvary Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team
82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC
25, of East Hampstead, NH; killed in action when an improvised
explosive device detonated near his unit in Zaganiyah, Iraq.
Operation Iraqi Freedom
5th Squadron, 73rd Calvary Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team
82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, NC
25, of East Hampstead, NH; killed in action when an improvised
explosive device detonated near his unit in Zaganiyah, Iraq.
Jonathan was sent to Iraq for the second time after a brief visit with his family. During one particularly cold and muddy night in January, near Balad, Iraq, Jonathan approached his commanding officer, to let him know he needed to use his unit's two helicopters for a quick errand. "I'm going to get pizza," he told Major Townley Hedrick. He was not ordinarily in charge of delivering pizzas, but that night he determined the unit -- in the middle of a major operation -- needed a morale boost. So, he flew to the nearby major Balad operating base, where a small Pizza Hut outlet was located, picked up 60 pies -- not to mention the usual list of vital supplies he was actually usually in charge of securing -- and personally delivered them to the 430 men in his unit. "That single act raised the entire Squadron's moral and made up for us missing Thanksgiving and Christmas," wrote Ray Edgar, a squadron command sergeant major, in a remembrance piece.
Jonathan was an Army Ranger with the 82nd Airborne. Hedrick, the squadron's executive officer, said he was one of several captains under his direct command, and certainly the one who helped him hold the unit together. "Professionally, he was the smartest and most competent guy that I've had a chance to work with in 15 years in the Army," Hedrick has said. "On a personal level, out of all the other captains on the staff, he was kind of the center of gravity." There was no one else to call to get the job done as well as him , he could do it, Hedrick said, and when it came for a little morale boosting, it was Jonathan who came up with the best ideas -- like having pizza delivered in the middle of a war zone. "He was just in tune with what all the guys needed," Hedrick said. "He had the perfect mix of a sense of urgency and a sense of humor, which is so important to have in the Army."
Jonathan attended Hampstead Central School and graduated from Hampstead Middle School. He went on to Phillips Exeter Academy and during his four years here he was very active in WPEA, serving as the school’s radio station’s personnel director. He was also an admissions tour guide and a library proctor. He then went to Johns Hopkins University, where he was a member of ROTC Color Guard and Pershing Rifles, a military fraternity. He served as Captain of the Ranger Challenge Team, and as ROTC Battalion Commander in his senior year, where he won the national two-man duet drill team competition - and met his wife Jenna, a freshman who had just joined the ROTC program.
He was the kind of husband who mailed his Valentine's Day card especially early, arriving in his wife's mailbox more than a week ahead of time, even though it came from Iraq. "It was one of the nicest things he ever sent me," said Jenna Grassbaugh, "He was talking about how he couldn't wait to come home and to be with me, and that we were going to have a family and grow old together with our family. ... We really wanted just to love each other forever."
Jonathan was also a former member of the 28th Massachusetts Civil War Re-enactment Group. “Jonathan was a really great kid,” said Dillard Collins, Central School principal. “I’ve dealt with a lot of kids in my years, and Jonathan was in the top 1 percent. Not only was he smart and an extremely nice kid, he was highly motivated and fully understood the concept of duty and honor, as does his entire family.”
His awards and decorations include: the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Ranger Tab, Combat Action Badge, and Parachutist Badge.
Jonathan is survived by his wife, Jenna, also an Army Ranger, his parents, Mark and Patti Grassbaugh, and his older brother and fellow Exeter alumnus, Army Captain Dr. Jason Grassbaugh.
Jonathan was an Army Ranger with the 82nd Airborne. Hedrick, the squadron's executive officer, said he was one of several captains under his direct command, and certainly the one who helped him hold the unit together. "Professionally, he was the smartest and most competent guy that I've had a chance to work with in 15 years in the Army," Hedrick has said. "On a personal level, out of all the other captains on the staff, he was kind of the center of gravity." There was no one else to call to get the job done as well as him , he could do it, Hedrick said, and when it came for a little morale boosting, it was Jonathan who came up with the best ideas -- like having pizza delivered in the middle of a war zone. "He was just in tune with what all the guys needed," Hedrick said. "He had the perfect mix of a sense of urgency and a sense of humor, which is so important to have in the Army."
Jonathan attended Hampstead Central School and graduated from Hampstead Middle School. He went on to Phillips Exeter Academy and during his four years here he was very active in WPEA, serving as the school’s radio station’s personnel director. He was also an admissions tour guide and a library proctor. He then went to Johns Hopkins University, where he was a member of ROTC Color Guard and Pershing Rifles, a military fraternity. He served as Captain of the Ranger Challenge Team, and as ROTC Battalion Commander in his senior year, where he won the national two-man duet drill team competition - and met his wife Jenna, a freshman who had just joined the ROTC program.
He was the kind of husband who mailed his Valentine's Day card especially early, arriving in his wife's mailbox more than a week ahead of time, even though it came from Iraq. "It was one of the nicest things he ever sent me," said Jenna Grassbaugh, "He was talking about how he couldn't wait to come home and to be with me, and that we were going to have a family and grow old together with our family. ... We really wanted just to love each other forever."
Jonathan was also a former member of the 28th Massachusetts Civil War Re-enactment Group. “Jonathan was a really great kid,” said Dillard Collins, Central School principal. “I’ve dealt with a lot of kids in my years, and Jonathan was in the top 1 percent. Not only was he smart and an extremely nice kid, he was highly motivated and fully understood the concept of duty and honor, as does his entire family.”
His awards and decorations include: the Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Ranger Tab, Combat Action Badge, and Parachutist Badge.
Jonathan is survived by his wife, Jenna, also an Army Ranger, his parents, Mark and Patti Grassbaugh, and his older brother and fellow Exeter alumnus, Army Captain Dr. Jason Grassbaugh.
On April 18, 2007, Exeter students and faculty gathered to honor Jonathan at a special assembly. The following is a tribute by his older brother, Jason, then in his fourth year as an orthopedic surgeon at the Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis,WA.
"Twelve years ago, when I was sitting where you are, I dreamed of being asked to come back and speak after I’d cured cancer, spread democracy or made millions of dollars. I never expected to be back under these circumstances, and I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come here and speak. The Jon I remember observed little things and delighted in sharing them with all of us. One March night when I was home from college, Jon made our whole family go to Grainger Observatory at 1 a.m. We were all skeptical about this trip, but Jon delivered. He provided stunning views of Saturn’s rings, a full moon and the nebulas he’d been studying in astronomy. Jon delighted in finding beauty around him and then sharing it with all the people that he knew. In Iraq, Jon was a supply officer for a battalion, a unit of about 1,000 people. Over the past two weeks I’ve learned how Jon had achieved minor celebrity status in Iraq by getting hot pizzas delivered to his guys who were out in the mud.His guys consumed cases of an Iraqi energy drink called Wild Tiger as fast as Jon could find ways to acquire it. The skills he learned here—looking closely at the people around him and then doing whatever they needed, whether they asked for it or not—are what made Jon a good officer in the Army and a better person. Ultimately, Jon died on a supply mission going to check on some of his guys at an outpost, making sure they had all the construction equipment that they needed to stay safe. Someone asked me if I was angry that a hate group had decided to protest Jon’s funeral. I am actually glad they are here, because it allows us to see the face of extremism and intolerance that we may be better prepared to identify and confront it in the future. You will all face hate and intolerance, and through those things people will be hurt and people will suffer. Ultimately, the tools that you will use to combat hate and intolerance will be your reason, your empathy and your compassion for other people. You already have all of these things. Just be sure to use them to make the world a better place for the people around you, one hot pizza at a time. Jon didn’t think there were many true moral dilemmas. He felt that if you had such a dilemma, you probably knew what was right inside. You just had to find the courage to act on it. My friends, your decisions in the future will have the ability to change the world and make it a better place. My brother strove to do that every day, to try to make the world a better place for the people near him. If you take anything from here today, remember that if you observe the world closely, you will see how you can make it better. Let that be Jon’s legacy to you: to make the world a better place." —Army Captain Dr. Jason Grassbaugh |