We got our money’s worth

For the Arizona Republic, I wrote this memoriam for Army Staff Sgt. William Latham who died of combat wounds in May 2003 in Iraq. He was 29. A Kingman, Ariz. native, Latham left behind a wife and 3 children.

ON APRIL 23, 1971, twenty-two-year-old Army Pfc. James Champion was inserted into Vietnam's notorious A Shau Valley with a six-man recon team. "Charlie" hit them immediately and nearly overwhelmed the squad. When the team ran low on water after days of running gun battles, Champion volunteered to find more. Vanishing into the jungle, he was never seen again.

Thirty-two years later, a metal wristband bearing Champion's name chafed against the skin of Staff Sgt. William Latham as he led a raid against Iraqi insurgents in Ar Ramadi. The Kingman native came from a long line of veterans dating back to the Revolutionary War. And he loved military life, said his father, himself an army veteran. Before shipping out to Iraq, Latham boasted to his father that he was finally going to give the taxpayers "their money's worth." On May 19, Latham ordered his team to fire a 40mm grenade to blast away a door that led to an enemy lair. A hot shard from the explosion blew back on Latham, seriously wounding him. Miraculously, no one else was injured. Latham died days later. Although heartbroken, Latham's father said that he knew his son would simply say, "Shit happens."

But somewhere in the swirling mists of the A Shau, the smiling ghost of Jim Champion knows America got her money's worth, and then some.