Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan K. Dozier

Remember Our Heroes

Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan K. Dozier, 30, of Rutherford, Tenn.

SSgt. Dozier was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Vilseck, Germany.; died Jan. 9, 2008 in Sinsil, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations. Also killed were Spc. Todd E. Davis, Staff Sgt. Sean M. Gaul, Sgt. Zachary W. McBride, Sgt. 1st Class Matthew I. Pionk and Sgt. Christopher A. Sanders.

WTKR -- Chesapeake native Staff Sergeant Jonathan Kilian Dozier died in Iraq. The 30 year old soldier was killed during ongoing operations in the Baqouba area and Diyala province in central Iraq, his father, Carl Dozier, said this afternoon.

The Pentagon has yet to confirm his death, but did report that six soldiers were killed Wednesday in Diyala when insurgents detonated a large bomb hidden inside a house.

Those deaths came as the military launched its third offensive in a year to dislodge Sunni guerrillas from sanctuaries north of Baghdad.

Dozier came from a family with a history of service. His relatives fought in the Civil War, both World Wars and Desert Storm. One of Dozier's kin, Thomas Lenwood Dozier, fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War as a private in the North Carolina Regiment.

Carl Dozier's maternal grandfather, Kilian Lang, served as an artilleryman in the German army in World War I. His father, Wilbur, enlisted in the Coast Guard in August 1941, just months before the U.S. entered World War II following the sneak attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Dozier said his son e-mailed him a photograph, taken on Christmas Day after his unit had a holiday meal - and just minutes before he was to go on an earlier mission. He said he did all he could to stay in touch with his son.

Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan K. Dozier was killed in action on 1/9/08.