Desert Dispatch: Family recalls local sailor killed in Iraq

BARSTOW — His 10-year high school reunion was next month, and his mother, Lydia, said he was considering coming home from Iraq for it.

Tragically, Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Phillip Daugherty, 28, will not make it back. Daugherty and two other sailors, Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Dale Lewis, a SEAL, 30, of Brookfield, Conn., and Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Richard McRill, 42, of Lake Placid, Fla., were killed on Friday by an improvised explosive device in Baghdad, according to a recently released Naval report.

The Virginian-Pilot: Three Beach-based sailors killed in blast in Baghdad

Three Virginia Beach-based sailors, including a Navy SEAL, were killed Friday by an improvised explosive device during combat in Baghdad.

Petty Officer 1st Class Jason Lewis, a SEAL based at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, and fellow first class petty officers Robert McRill and Steven Daugherty were killed when an improvised bomb detonated near their Humvee, the Navy said Saturday.

SFGate.com: Barstow Navy man killed by Iraq bomb

Petty Officer 1st Class Phillip Daugherty, a Navy cryptologic technician from Barstow, was killed by an improvised bomb in Iraq.

Daugherty, 28, was on his second tour in Iraq but was considering coming home next month for his 10-year high school reunion, his mother said.

WHO LOVED SO WELL

(A sailor's eulogy)
by Robert E. Browne CPO, USN, ret.
We sailed the sea by oceans light,
Around the horn through restless night.
Our course and luck did make it right
To see things new in strange delight.
The seas were harsh and took their toll
With branded flesh and tortured soul
And when at last the sun sat low
It touched the earth with blood red glow.
The mighty wars have all been won.
Now empty winds slack sails undone.
The world is ours but mates care not
And search in vain for wars unfought.
Silver breakers plight our trough
To sails unfurled and winds aloft.
Spirits soar on breezes free
That bear the souls of sailors we.
Hear our prayer Oh Lord our God.
We lived to serve and wield thy rod.
Though wretches we and racked with flaws,
We are the ones who fought thy cause.
Now bleached white bones on foreign sands
Attest the toll in far off lands
For those who heard their country's call,
Brave sailors each, who came to fall.
Remember those who served on ships
And bid farewell on endless trips
Across the seas to Timbuktu
And lived and died, these chosen few.
We ask this, Lord, for those so true
And honor bound beneath skies blue
Who served and died for freedom's hand
To hold and cherish this, your land,
A sailor's death on ships of sleep
With few to know and none to weep
For faith so brave, a soul to keep
A silent grave in oceans deep.
And when the end has come at last
And unfilled shadows heaven casts,
Remember we who served and fell
And to the hosts of heaven tell,
Bring home my boys who loved so well.

A million years ago, I was a Cryptologic Technician, like PO1 Daugherty. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Labels: Navy