PFC JESSE BURYJ
66th Military Police Company
Army
Pfc. Jesse R. Buryj, Age 21, of Canton, Ohio; assigned to the 66th
Military Police Company, Fort Lewis, Wash.; killed May 5, 2004 when his
military vehicle was struck by a dump truck whose
driver had been shot while trying to run through a control point in
Karbala, Iraq.
(www.militarycity.com)
Ohio soldier killed in attack at checkpoint in Iraq
Associated Press
(www.militarycity.com)
Jesse Buryj, 21, of Canton, fired more than 400 rounds at a dump truck trying to crash the checkpoint near Karbala. He shot the driver of the truck, which then crashed into the Humvee in which he was riding, an Army sergeant told his mother, Peggy Buryj, on Wednesday morning.
“Everyone was fine, but Jesse’s stomach was hurting him,” she was told. “They took him to a hospital where they found he had massive internal injuries, and he died on the operating table.”
His mother said Army representatives were expected to tell her more Thursday.
Buryj was a soldier with the 66th MP Company at Fort Lewis, Wash., in October when he married his high school sweetheart, Amber Tichenor.
“They were just married a few months and he had to leave,” she said.
Buryj was a member of the Canton City Police Youth Corps before he joined the Army during his senior year.
“He told the Army, ‘If I can’t be an MP (military police officer) and a paratrooper, I’m not going,”’ she recalled. “He went to jump school and he got his wings.”
His mother said he wanted to be a military police officer so he could become a Canton police officer.
“That’s all he wanted — to be a Canton police officer. But he couldn’t be a Canton police officer until he was 21. So he joined the Army,” she said, adding that to her, “My son was a police officer — always.”
Ohio
soldier remembered for his bravery, compassion
Associated
Press
(www.militarycity.com)
Buryj, 21, of Canton, died May 5. He was credited with saving at least three lives when he fired more than 400 rounds at a dump truck trying to crash a checkpoint near Karbala, the military and family members have said.
An Army sergeant said Buryj shot the driver of the truck, which then crashed into his Humvee, said Peggy Buryj, the soldier’s mother. He later died of injuries from the crash.
Buryj was with the 66th Military Police Company at Fort Lewis, Wash., and was one of 24 Ohioans who have been killed in Iraq.
“He is a soldier. He is too young to be gone,” Gen. Dennis Moran told about 250 mourners inside Eleventh Street Church of God.
“As a military police officer, his first job was to serve and protect” fellow soldiers, Moran said. “He trusted his life to those soldiers as they trusted theirs to him.”
Moran presented Buryj’s family with his medals — the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
Matthew Beadoin, who was best man at Buryj’s wedding, gave the eulogy and said Buryj was “the bravest person, friend and soldier” he had ever known.
The Canton McKinley High School graduate enlisted in the Army out of high school because he was too young to be a Canton police officer, which remained his career goal. Buryj married his high school sweetheart, Amber Tichenor, in October.
Outside the church, people waited in the rain with flags and signs to show their support for Buryj’s family. Among them were family and friends of Cpl. Andrew Brownfield, of nearby Akron, who was killed in Iraq on March 18.
“We’re here to support this family,” said Brownfield’s mother, Melody Roop. “They’re going through what we went through, and we’re here for them.”
A few minutes later, she and her family burst into tears when the song “You Raise Me Up” blared from the church’s loudspeakers across the street. The same song was played at her son’s funeral.
Thursday, May 6, 2004 By LORI MONSEWICZ Repository staff writer
The 21-year-old Canton native was killed in Iraq, firing more than 400 rounds at a dump truck trying to crash a U.S. Army checkpoint, an Army sergeant told his mother, Peggy Buryj, on Wednesday morning at her home on Smith Avenue NW.
“They said, ‘I regret to inform you your son was killed in the line of duty,’ ” she recalled, wiping away tears.
She was told that a Humvee in which he was riding came under attack at a checkpoint near Karbala. A dump truck driver tried to crash the checkpoint, and her son shot the driver of the truck, which crashed into the Humvee, she said.
“Everyone was fine, but Jesse’s stomach was hurting him,” she was told. “They took him to a hospital where they found he had massive internal injuries, and he died on the operating table.”
His mother said Army representatives were expected to tell her more today.
Friends of the family stopped at the house throughout the day as the news spread in the community, a once-close-knit neighborhood where her son had played kickball and baseball in the streets with the other children.
Tears fell as Peggy Buryj and her friend, Pat Confalone, hugged in the living room.
They recalled how their sons — Jesse and Steve Confalone — were once on the front page of The Repository. The story told how Jesse had been saved after falling through the ice in Westbrook Park during “a warm snap in March” when the boys were 10 or 11 years old. They had been trying to retrieve a ball out on the ice, Confalone said.
The photographer wanted to take their picture, but “they were too busy giggling and wouldn’t sit still,” Buryj said, chuckling. “They didn’t care about being in the paper. They just wanted to go play Nintendo.”
“(The Repository) is back here, for what my boy did this time,” Buryj said, smiling.
As Confalone left the house, Buryj hugged her, telling her, “You hug your boy for me twice tonight. Don’t let him out of your sight.”
Buryj had last heard from her son on Easter Sunday.
“I was hoping to get a call for Mother’s Day,” she said.
He would have called her.
“He was a well-mannered, well-rounded person. He was a parent’s dream,” said his sister, Angela. “If he ever did anything wrong, if he ever got in trouble, he always told on himself.”
Jesse Buryj was a member of the Canton City Police Youth Corps and worked at Wendy’s restaurant on Cleveland Avenue, and played in the marching band — all for four years — before he joined the army during his senior year.
“Jesse got to dot the ‘I’ his senior year. He was so proud of that,” Buryj said, referring to the band’s practice of spelling “McKinley” on the field. “He loved his Bulldogs more than anything. He was a McKinley fan to the end.”
And, she said, “He was an easy recruit; he wanted to go. I begged him and I pleaded with him not to go.”
She wanted him to go to college.
He chose to serve his country and he told them how he intended to do it.
“He told the Army, ‘If I can’t be an MP (military police officer) and a paratrooper, I’m not going,’ ” she recalled. “He went to jump school and he got his wings.”
It was an important step toward his lifelong goal.
“Jesse wanted to become a military police officer so he could become a Canton police officer. That’s all he wanted — to be a Canton police officer. But he couldn’t be a Canton police officer until he was 21. So he joined the Army,” she said. “My son was a police officer — always.”
Jesse turned 21 on Dec. 7. His mother pointed out that he was born on Pearl Harbor Day, which ushered in U.S. entry into World War II in 1941.
After graduating in 2002, he began his stint in the service in September. His mother said he wanted to have the summer “to goof off.”
He was a soldier with the 66th MP Co. in Fort Lewis, Wash., in October when he married his high school sweetheart, Amber Tichenor. The couple had met in marching band where she played piccolo, Buryj said. Their band director performed the marriage ceremony.
She asked that Jesse’s wife, who is devastated by his death, not be reached for comment.
“They were just married a few months and he had to leave,” she said.
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