The last time I checked there were three other NJ fatalities including Lt. Seth Dvorin (JWV Post 972 is named for him).  Also there were 2 marine officers from Tenn.( one might be from Ky.).Also one of the first Marines killed in Iraq was Cpl. Ervan from Vt.

Other Jewish service fatalities include Petty Officer Nathan Brickenthal, 1st Lieutenant David Bernstein and Marine Sargeant Foster Harrington

I think you mean Marine CPL Mark Evnin from vermont http://www.militarycity.com/iraq/1745963.html

Daniel J. Freeman, US Army, Cincinatti (Cincinnati, by the way) was KIA in Afghanistan, not Iraq: http://www.wlwt.com/news/4368126/detail.html.  I can still picture him in his uniform at his little brother’s bar mitzvah.

Alan and Sheshe, Thanks for keeping us updated.  This is very important.  Questions will (and already do) come up on how many Jewish servicemen have paid the ultimate price.  As a community we need to be able to provide an answer (as best we can) and most importantly to honor their memory. I recommend that JIG start a memorial/yerzeit page and that all of us participate in keeping it updated. Also, many thanks to Sgt Brian Kresge for bringing this issue up in the first place.

Strange to think about Jews fighting and dying in the place that was once Babylon - the earthly location of the Garden of Eden, Abraham’s birthland, as well as our second exile and hence the place where the Babylonian Talmud was compiled.

I note in today’s NYTimes “names of the dead” included Major Mark Rosenberg of Miami Lakes, Fla. Fourth Infantry Division.

JIG Administrator, When you have a chance please correct the first name at the top of the list (Capt Secher) - his first name is Robert.  Thanks.

Paul Michael Felberg does not seem to be Jewish--his grave marker has a Christian cross (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSvcid=13367&GRid=9680945&)

Young medic, from West Rogers Park, killed in Iraq
Albert Bitton attended Ida Crown Academy

By LORRAINE SWANSON, Editor

For the second time in six years, the war in Iraq has claimed the life of a former student at the Ida Crown Jewish Academy.

Albert Bitton, 20, who grew up in West Rogers Park, was killed in Baghdad on Feb. 20, when the Humvee he was in was hit by an improvised explosive device.

Another Ida Crown student, Sgt. Steven Budeysky, was killed in action during the war’s early days.

Senior Airman Jonathan Yelner of Lafayette volunteered to be sent to Afghanistan two months ago to help local residents build new roads and buildings and to set up water supplies.

Yelner, 24, was killed Tuesday when a bomb exploded near his vehicle near Bagram, about 25 miles north of Kabul and the site of an air base where U.S. forces are stationed.

Yelner, a six-year Air Force veteran, was a weapons loader who had been assigned to the 28th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. He was serving with the 755th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Air Base as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said.

Yelner volunteered for duty in Afghanistan to help locals rebuild and improve their infrastructure, his family said.

“I’m very proud of him,” said his father, Bruce Yelner of El Cerrito. “He was performing one of the more nobler duties of the military in Afghanistan. He did a lot of good for the local Afghanis.”

His mother, Yolanda Vega of Lafayette, broke down Wednesday as she said, “My sadness is that I will not see my son. He wanted to wear the uniform of the United States Air Force, and I supported him. He wanted to go to Afghanistan. He said, ‘Mom, we’re really making a difference.’ I supported him. I never knew he would be killed there.”

Vega said, “However, I know he’s with God. I know he’s in heaven.”

Yelner previously served in Guam, Diego Garcia - a military base on an atoll in the Indian Ocean - and, for four months last year, in Iraq, his father said. “I want you to tell the world he’s a great guy,” he said.

Yelner was Jewish and Puerto Rican and was proud of his heritage. On his MySpace page, he proudly proclaimed himself a “Puerto Rican heartthrob.” At the top of the page is the statement: “Puerto Rican heartthrob is living each day like my last. Cause it might be.”

Yelner - known to his friends as Jake and Vega, one of his middle names - described himself on MySpace as a blunt and honest person. “I say what is on my mind and the truth no matter what,” he wrote. “I live life like I want to so I am not one of those guys that says, ‘Damn I wish I did that.’ “

Retired Senior Airman David Scott, 23, of Rapid City, S.D., said of his friend’s bluntness, “There was a certain charm about it. It’s hard to explain, but it’s something he pulled off.”

Yelner’s prized possession was a Ford Mustang that he recently purchased, his family said.

Yelner was an Eagle Scout and played lacrosse while attending De La Salle High School in Concord, where flags flew at half-staff. He enjoyed swordplay and was just starting to get into martial arts, he said on his MySpace page. Friends said he also enjoyed role-playing games.

“I am a simple guy with simple interests and a complicated brain,” he wrote.

Aubrey Watts, 23, of Rapid City, S.D., said Yelner “had the biggest heart and the most beautiful soul of anyone I have known. Words can’t even begin to describe how generous he was.”

Just four hours before she learned that he had died, Watts said she got two dozen roses from him. “It was my surprise after having surgery and for being, as he put it, the strongest woman he has ever known besides his mama. It is very much ironic to receive the flowers on the same day I find out, but in his own fashion that was him.”

Watts said, “I can’t imagine him going out in a better way. He was a true warrior in every sense of the word.”

Caitlyn Morrow, 22, a native of San Jose, said Yelner was one of the first people she met in South Dakota after moving there from Portland. “It was like having an instant family,” she said.

Morrow said she would miss “his uncanny ability to make me smile while telling me the brutal truth. He would tell me the truth in such a way that you couldn’t help but smile, even if it hurt a little bit.”

In a statement, Col. Scott Vander Hamm, 28th Bomb Wing commander, wrote: “My most sincere condolences go out to the family of our lost service member. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected and impacted by Airman Yelner’s death.”

In a statement, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said, “Senior Airman Jonathan Yelner answered the call to defend the United States with bravery, integrity and a relentless devotion to the ideals and freedoms that we all hold dear.”

Go to yahoo and put in name you will find about Sgt Steven Budeysky in pdf version like this

[PDF] BULLETIN
108k - Adobe PDF
1. Official notices in this bulletin are orders of the command. ... indebted to the late SGT Budeysky, Steven M., Alpha Company, 314 MI Battalion, Lackland AFB, ...
cs.amedd.army.mil/rmb/bull/doclib/.../upload/bulletin23FY05.pdf

JIG Administrator: Can we add Senior Airman Jonathan Yelner, USAF, California to our list?  Also, since he was killed in Afghanistan (and so was SPC Daniel J. Freeman) can we make this a list of KIAs from both Iraq and Afghanistan?  (Currently the first sentence of the lead paragraph says Iraq.) Sgt Kresge, Thanks to you - Great job on getting us started on this!!  This has become the unofficial memorial/yerziet page for the heroes of our community who have given their lives in the service of our country. May they never be forgotten.

I have an offer.  If anyone would like to write a well-expressed guest post for my blog www.mrslieutenant.blogspot.com about Jews serving in all wars of the United States, I would be open to this.  You can contact me through my website www.mrslieutenant.com (which includes a listing for jewsingreen in the section on organizations that support military families).  I would start the post something like “Perhaps because of what happened to Jews in the Holocaust, Americans today have a mistaken idea of the role American Jews have played and continue to play in our country’s armed forces.”

I think LT. Daniel Farkas is Jewish

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=20646

NYPD Officer Dies in Afghanistan
July 6, 2008
A New York City police lieutenant serving as a National Guardsman has died in Afghanistan, police said Saturday. Lt. Daniel Farkas, 42, of Brooklyn, who joined the NYPD in 1988, was assigned to the 112th Precinct in Forest Hills, police said.

The date and details of Farkas’ death were not available Saturday afternoon. A police spokesman said the military informed the department of Farkas’ death on Friday.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Defense declined to comment Saturday, citing a policy of waiting 24 hours after family notification to release names of casualties.

The New York National Guard did not return a call for comment, and family members at Farkas’ home declined to comment Saturday.

YWN has no further information.

(Source: Newsday / YW-11 / YW-112)

From 9/11 I just learned about another Jewish hero fallen in the first two hours of the war-

Lieutenant JG Darin Parnell, USN Intel

Thanks Sgt. Kresge- I would only ask that we make this a permanent part of our website- it is important that we memorialize our fallen heroes and it will serve as an everlasting tribute to their sacrifice.

Thanks again.

There was some discussion here questioning the death of Sgt. Steven M. Budeysky. I was his friend. We went to high school (Ida Crown) together. I’m still in touch with his family. Steven was on a classified assignment in Iraq when he was killed on May 19th, 2005. The exact circumstances of his death were never released by the Army because they are classified. He’s a hero and should be remembered as such.

I’ve renamed the post and made some updates.  Since this is a GWOT “memorial,” inclusion will be based off of eligibility for either the Global War on Terrorism Expiditionary or Service medals, as well as the Iraq or Afghanistan Campaign Medals, as applicable.  This negates any need to debate inclusion.

U.S. Army Ranger Ret. killed working in Afghanistan

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243872319758&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

U.K. soldier KIA in Afghanistan http://www.thejc.com/articles/jewish-serviceman-killed-afghanistan

Jewish serviceman killed in Afghanistan
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From The Jewish Chronicle
June 15, 2009

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Lieutenant Paul Mervis was killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, while on foot patrol with the British forces in northern Helmand.

The 27-year-old Londoner was one of the first officers commissioned into 2nd Battalion The Rifles in 2007. The Ministry of Defence said “it was typical of the man that he led from the front in one of Afghanistan’s most demanding and dangerous districts”.

His family said he was “a wonderful loving son, brother and friend, generous and thoughtful with an infectious sense of fun. Paul was killed doing the job he chose and loved.

“He had read widely about Afghanistan and went with a genuine desire to help bring enough stability to enable reconstruction to follow.”
Last updated: 5:00pm, June 15 2009

Please add one more fallen hero…
Aaron Fairbairn, US Army (not sure of the rank) killed in Afghanistan.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443726265&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Sgt Kresge,
When you have time, please add Sgt Robert M. Weinger to our Yarzheit/Memorial Board:
Weiner, Robert M. - Sergeant, Army National Guard, Illinois
He was killed in Afghanistan on 15 March 2009 - awarded a Bronze Star and Purple heart.  Previous to his tour in Afghanistan he served 2 years in Iraq.  His funeral was conducted by Rabbi/Chaplain Ira Ehrenpreis and there is an article about him (with photo) on page 3 of the latest JWV “Jewish Veteran” magazine.
May he rest in peace and be remembered always.
Thanks, Samson

Thanks everyone for the updates.  I’ve been out of the loop for a month or two, my apologies.

Has the JWV been talking about developing a permanent memorial in Washington, perhaps, to honor Jewish war dead in the GWOT (or whatever we are now calling it)?  I was hoping to get to the convention this year to ask but it may not happen since I’m currently mobilized.

Forgot to mention that South African-born Greg Sher was in the Australian army.

I know he’s not a Global War on Terror casualty, but does anyone know if perhaps Scott Speicher was a MOT?

Sgt Kresge, Please note that on the Yerzeit board, Sgt Robert Weinger’s name is spelled incorectly - it’s currently on the list as Weiner, but it’s actually spelled Weinger with a g.  Thanks, SAMSON

To Sgt Robert Weinger’s Aunt,
The article on Sgt Weinger in the JWV magazine can be found as follows:
1. Go to JWV.org web page
2. Click on “communications” in the choices bar at the top of the page.
3. Click on “The Jewish Veteran” (the name of their magazine).
4. Click on their latest issue (Vol.62, No.3, Summer 2009).
5. See the bottom left corner of page 3.
I hope your grief at his loss will be consoled by knowing that he always be remembered. 
Regards, Samson

A possible Jewish soldier:
Spc. Ross E. Vogel, III, 27, of Red Lion, Pa., died Sept. 29 in Kut, Iraq, of injuries suffered from a non-combat related incident.  He was assigned to the 67th Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, Fort Gordon, Ga.

http://www.fox43.com/news/wpmt-amnews-soldierdeath-redlion-10-1-09,0,1683438.story