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Daniel W Eggers |
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Cape Coral, Florida |
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May 29, 2004 |
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| Died in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when their vehicle hit a land mine. | ||||||||
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| DATE POSTED: MARCH 22, 2005 Eggers remembered for humor, compassion By Sgt. 1st Class Darren D. Heusel 105th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KABUL, Afghanistan (USASOC News Service, March 22, 2005) — Capt. Daniel W. Eggers, who was killed in Afghanistan with three other servicemembers May 29, 2004, near Kandahar, was remembered March 20 by those closest to him after a ceremony that renamed Kabul Compound in his honor. Eggers’ wife, Capt. Rebecca L. Eggers, who was unable to attend the ceremony, said the two things people will remember most about her spouse are his “insane sense of humor and the fact that he treated everyone equally, both in his personal life and his professional life.” “He reached out to those less fortunate without making them feel embarrassed by their situation,” Mrs. Eggers said in an e-mail from her office at Fort Bragg, N.C., where she is serving at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command. “He was humbled by the handicapped,” she continued. “He was an extremely spiritual person that let his faith guide him.” Also killed that day with Eggers were Sgt. 1st Class Robert J. Mogensen, Spc. Joseph A. Jeffries and Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Brian J. Ouellette. The four men were fatally wounded by an improvised explosive device while returning to their base as they tried to avoid another IED in the road. Eggers’ former neighbor, Jeffrey Weber of Manhattan, Kan., said in an e-mail posted on the Fallen Heroes Memorial Web site, "I am proud to have grown up next door to Daniel Eggers. I have received the deepest inspiration from his example. I am a better person today because of my proximity to such a selfless hero." Kris Mitchell of Columbus, Ga., went to school with Eggers and was a sophomore while he was a junior at The Citadel Military College in South Carolina. “As a cadet, I knew him from ROTC; as a lieutenant, I knew him as a ‘Cottonbaler.’ I also knew him as a friend – admired and respected by all,” he wrote in another e-mail posted on the Web site. “I was proud to see him in his Green Beret, it was him. At the 2003 homecoming, I asked him about Special Forces and how he liked it. He told me that it was the best place for him and he loved it! Dan was a great man! I am honored to know him.” Brian Ouellette of Uxbridge, Mass., a brother of Michael Ouellette, wrote in another e-mail, “My brother was surrounded with the best of the best.” Mrs. Eggers said she and her husband came into the military in 1997, and being half of a dual-military couple was much like being half of any dual-income family. “You learn to split everything, to include cooking dinner, picking up the children and doing the housework,” she wrote in the e-mail. “Since we both worked the same amount of time, there was never an expectation that one of us would pull more of the load at home. “We were extremely lucky in that, while we were in school, we were able to be stationed together fairly easily. And, until Dan became SF, he hadn’t been on a deployment for more than 30 days.” Mrs. Eggers went on to say they were fortunate in that they didn’t have to leave their two children, John Joseph Eggers, 6, and William Howard Eggers, 4, at the same time, “something that happens more and more often now.” “So, for us having two military members in the same family was not nearly as difficult as I know some people’s situations are,” she wrote. “He was a wonderful husband and father, and we miss him dearly.” |
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| DATE POSTED: MAY 31, 2004 PRESS RELEASE: 3 USASOC Soldiers killed in Afghanistan U.S. Army Special Operations Command Public Affairs Office FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, May 31, 2004) — Three U.S. Army Special Operations Command Soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan May 29 when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device there. Capt. Daniel W. Eggers, Sgt. 1st Class Robert J. Mogensen and Spc. Joseph A. Jeffries were fatally wounded while returning to their base of operations near Kandahar when the IED detonated as they tried to avoid another explosive device in the road. Eggers, 28, a Special Forces detachment commander, and Mogensen, 26, a Special Forces weapons sergeant, were both assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, N.C. Jeffries, 21, was a psychological operations specialist assigned to the 320th Psychological Operations Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Portland, Ore. The explosion also killed a U.S. Navy Sailor. All four service members were attached to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The incident is under investigation. Eggers, a native of Cape Coral, Fla., graduated from The Citadel Military College of South Carolina in May 1997 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He completed Special Forces training in 2002 and was assigned to 1st Bn., 3rd SFG in May 2003 following Arabic language training. He is survived by his wife, Rebecca, and his sons, John, 6, and William, 3. A native of Leesville, La., Mogensen enlisted in the Army in 1995 and served in a number of Special Forces assignments with the 3rd SFG. He was a senior Special Forces noncommissioned officer and spoke French. Mogensen is survived by his wife, Tanya, and three children, Joshua, 10, Vanessa, 6, and Leilani, 8 weeks. Jeffries, of Beaverton, Ore., joined the Army in October 2001 and completed the Psychological Operations Specialist Course at Fort Bragg, N.C. He is survived by his wife, Betsy, of Beaverton, and his parents, Mark and Linda Jeffries, also of Beaverton. |
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