Maryland's Fourth Hero

georgeamitchell
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Army Spc. George A. Mitchell, 35, of Rawlings, Md.; assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Division, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, Fort Stewart, Ga.; died of wounds received April 7 in an enemy rocket attack south of Baghdad.

HE WAS A DESERT STORM VETERAN

George Mitchell called his wife April 7 to chat about what he wanted to do after the war. He asked if she would put up with him if he became a policeman. “I joked back that I’d put up with him in the Army,” said Brenda Sue Mitchell.

A half-hour later, an enemy rocket landed near his tent. He died the next day.

A Desert Storm veteran, Mitchell, 35, left the Army and was in the Army Reserves for 10 years. He missed military life so much that he re-enlisted last May on his birthday. He was “tickled” to be taking on Saddam Hussein again, says his wife.

Mitchell of Antioch, W.Va., had taped pictures of his youngest children, Bailee, 3, and Joshua, 2, above the windshield of his Humvee.