Maryland's Twelfth Hero

brandonldavis
Originally uploaded by Randuwa

Army Pvt. Brandon L. Davis, 20, of Cumberland, Md.; assigned to the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.; killed March 31 when an improvised explosive device hit his armored personnel carrier in Habbaniyah, Iraq.

'HE WAS MY BABY'

“It’s terrible,” [Jackie Weatherholt] said. “He was my baby. I have three kids, and he was my baby.”

Weatherholt said she last spoke with Davis March 20 by telephone. They discussed the dangers of the high-risk areas into which he was always being sent, she said. “I said, ‘Watch your back, Brandon.”’

She said Davis enjoyed carpentry and fishing. A graduate of Fort Hill High School in Cumberland, he had joined the Army in hopes of learning a trade, she said.

“He was just your average, everyday teenager, basically,” she said. “He was just one of those all-American kids, the guys who help old women across the street.”